Insufferable
by theformulaofpudding
Summary: A collection of Grayza one-shots/drabbles. 56 - They keep waiting for the other to make a move.
1. Insufferable

A/N: Hey guys! Well, this is my first attempt at posting a one-shot collection, so I hope you like it! There will be some side NaLu and Lyvia, maybe hints at other ships? I have about twenty one-shots on backlog, so updates should be pretty regular. Reviews are loved (even if they are flames)! Enjoy!

* * *

Erza scowled at Gray, hating how he always picked a fight with Natsu. She wished they would be less hostile with each other and actually say how much they really cared about each other in a brotherly way. She knew they knew why they fought, deep _deep_ down, but they could at least show it in a less violent way.

Gray hated how Erza was uptight with everyone in the guild. He knew she loved every single member, but she was always distant with them, never really trusting them as much as she should. She just asked them to do little tasks for other members. It might've been different with Lucy, Mira, Cana and Levy, her closest female friends, but even then she only relied on herself for most things. She never asked for help, even if she needed it, and it irritated Gray to no end.

Erza wished that Gray wouldn't strip so much. She knew he couldn't help it, as it was taught to him habitually by his teacher, but he could at least wear an undershirt or something. She wasn't really complaining, though, because he had a nice chest, well-muscled with a few scars that made him look so much more mature than he really was. The only issue she had was that every other living female who wasn't used to his habit caught sight of him too. She wanted to be the only who saw that chest on a regular basis.

Gray wanted Erza to wear more concealing armor. All her outfits were nearly straight from a swimsuit issue, showing off her toned legs and curvy figure. He liked that they showed off nearly every inch of her skin, but it caught the eye of other men too. He knew she couldn't pick how her armor covered her body, but it would be better if she added some black fabric over the plunging neckline or flat-stomach-showing midriff. Even Natsu had admitted to saying that Erza had a nice body after one of their battles, which had resulted in another one of their fights. Gray just wanted that body all to himself, not wanting to share it with any other being.

Erza hated how much she loved Gray, because it made her look past all the little annoying flaws he had that he needed to be punished for.

Gray was often frustrated with himself when he caught himself staring at the mighty Titania, and he desperately wished she wasn't so difficult and didn't have so many of the flaws he managed to ignore.

They both found the other insufferable. So much so that they were willing to hate the other so much to the point of being head-over-heels in love. It was a complex enigma to any guild outsider, the obnoxious and disrespectful ice mage and the authoritative, no-nonsense Titania longing for each other, but everyone in the guild understood. Sometimes, people who grew up as close as Erza and Gray found each other so insufferable that they fell in love.

* * *

A/N: Ew, this is short. They get longer(?).


	2. Hiding

A/N: Okay, I'm posting another one-shot because I'm in a good mood. Looking over my documents, this is the third-longest (1,010 words) so this is about as long as they're getting for right now. I have nineteen drabbles (lets face it, that's what they are currently)preset into the doc manager, and I'll try to post one every other day or so. So, enjoy, and please don't beat me up for the ending.

* * *

A cold winter night settles into Magnolia as Team Natsu makes their way back into Fairy Tail after a long mission. Lucy pulls Natsu into the guild happily, glad to finally be home, and Gray catches the small smile on Natsu's face. Gray knows the boy is whipped, but he doesn't need to be so damn happy about being dragged around. Gray wishes the same smile graced the lips of Erza, who's been unreachable since they boarded the train. Something is wrong, he can feel it in her aura, but he can't figure out what it is for the life of him. "Oi, Erza," he says, snapping his fingers in front of her face, hoping she'd snap out of whatever funk she is in. "You're about to run into a wall."

"Huh?" She blinks rapidly and looks from side to side before settling on glaring at the young man who has falsely alarmed her. "Not funny, Gray," she mutters indifferently, and that is when he realizes something is really wrong. Usually, she would make him run fifty laps around the city or act as her personal transportation for a day if he did something like that.

He wants to be upfront with her, tell her she has to tell him what's wrong or he'll make Mira withhold her cake until she spills, but there's something in her blank expression that stops him. She looks terrified behind the blankness, and it scares Gray. What could she be so scared about? "Do you want me to walk you home?" he blurts out, surprising himself and Erza.

She blinks a few times, as if regaining consciousness, and nods. "That'd be nice," she says, no emotion in her voice. He grabs her hand before walking off in the direction of Fairy Hills, relishing in the warm contact of her skin. They hadn't held hands for a long time, not since she and him were twelve and eleven, respectively, and they were lost in the forest. Erza had been the one to initiate the contact then, just grabbing his hand to reassure him everything was okay. He hopes the same message is relayed to her, as she walks robotically in her dream-like trance.

She adjusts their grip, lacing her fingers between his, nodding slightly to hopefully send the message to the ice mage next to her. _You have forty-eight hours,_ the voice whispers through her head again, _forty-eight hours before you die. I recommend living it to the fullest, dearie. _

She had eight hours left of that time. Come sunrise the next morning, she would be gasping for breath, trying to keep her slowing heart from coming to a complete stop. She kept running scenarios through her head, how could she could beat the magic - but she knew it was no good. She couldn't fight this. She'd always thought her death would be something quick, not prolonged and miserable like this was. She doesn't want to die, she realizes when the warmth of Gray's hand reaches her heart. She still has yet to tell Gray how much she cares about him.

"Are you going in or not?" He asked irritatedly, but she can hear the worry in his voice. She doesn't let go of his hand, instead tightening the grip, as she drags him into her room. She doesn't care if anyone sees get pull him into her room; right now she just needs him to be there with her. "What's wrong, Erza?" he asks, all defensive walls down. It only happens when they're alone, when he becomes the gentle, soft-hearted boy he proved himself to be all those years ago. He might be bull-headed, but he's learned to control it around her. He'd be so much different if it wasn't for her, she realizes, and the converse is true too. She might not be where she is now without the ice mage.

"When we were fighting, I was hit with a slow death spell. It lasts forty-eight hours." She said, meeting his eyes for the first time in a day or two. They're a dark, dark blue, almost black, she notices, almost like a lake at midnight. "Forty of those hours have been spent."

He looks in shock at her, a slow comprehension dawning on his face. "No. You - But - Why you?" he says finally, deciding on what words to use. He doesn't ask how or why or what she wants to do, but the most difficult question to answer. "You're the strongest of all of us."

She shakes her head. "I'm only strong when I wear my armor. You're always strong," she says softly, grabbing his other hand. "Can you promise me that you won't fight with Natsu over stupid things?"

He tries to laugh, but it comes out mangled, a black chortle that confirms her guess. "No promises. Anything other last wishes?" It's supposed to be a flippant remark, but it comes out darkly. She doesn't want to cry, but she can feel tears prickling her eyes.

"Tell everyone I love them. And don't leave me tonight." She manages before tears finally choke her vision and her throat swells. She buries her face in his chest, clutching her best friend, her closest friend, tightly.

"As you wish."

* * *

Gray is warmer than usual when he wakes up, finding a tangle of red hair on the opposite side of the pillow he slept on. Last night's shared words replay in his head, and frantically, as though he could really prevent it, he checks yet throat for a pulse.

He feels nothing beneath his fingers.

He swallows hard, refusing to cry. He refuses to do anything that might've seemed logical to any outside force. He holds her body close to his, whispering into her hair that he was sorry, pressing his lips to her lifeless ones, hoping that be some miracle she'd press back, telling him she loves him again.

He has lost his Titania, and she has lost her prince, all because she hid her impending doom from her _nakama_.


	3. Tipsy Acting

A/N: Okay, don't shoot me. This one is really short, but full of fluff. And I promise the next one will be much longer. Like, four times this length. I have also figured out a way on how to post these. It will go happy, cutesy fluff and then the next chapter will be doom and gloom, most likely including a death or some depressing something or another. That way I'm not killing you guys slowly with DOOOOM feels. So, enjoy Tipsy Acting, a fan favorite! *cough* DEZ *cough*

* * *

"My sweet lady Erza, look at these puny townspeople! Aren't they something to be ashamed of?" Gray slurred from the stage, pointing at the empty chairs in the crowd. "I should slay them all so we can repopulate the town with great mages like ourselves!"

"My great, handsome Lord Gray," Erza slurred in reply, leaning against her sword to stay balanced, a goofy grin on her face, "that sounds like a marvelous idea! Let us slay all these puny townspeople, and let us become a town of mages!" She jumped off the stage after grabbing Gray's hand and they both blushed childishly before attacking the tables and chairs. "Lord, what fools these mortals be! They aren't even trying to escape!"

"Lady, 'tis much easier to clear the town that way!" Gray replied, slashing with his ice sword at the furniture. "We should go to your castle after we finish and proceed to start repopulating the town!"

"I approve of that idea, my Lord!" Erza chuckled, slicing the last chair. "Let us be be off!" They joined hands again and walked out of the guild.

* * *

Mortification heated their faces as Mira showed them the video tape. "I figured I should show you what blackmail I have on you two," the Beast Takeover mage said sweetly, holding the tape in her small hands. "Now, tell me. What's really going on between Lucy and Natsu?"


	4. Deathbed

A/N: Hey there, people who read my story! I have another drabble for you (880 words) that has a death. Sorry if you don't like that stuff, and this is probably crap but you know. And it's probably out of character. Oh well. Here is "Deathbed."

* * *

Erza wished he hadn't been such a stubborn prince. He'd thought he could breeze into the fight and then whisk her away to safety before jumping into the ugly fight.

The first half of that was correct. He'd managed to show up just in the nick of time, buying her a few seconds to tell her to get out of there. "I can defeat this thing, Erza," he'd said confidently, flashing a bright smile at her. "Get out of here."

She didn't know what possessed her to run. Her knees were weak like jelly when he smiled, and her heart told her to run, to trust someone else for once. She listened, for one time in her miserable life, to the thing that kept her very being from falling into non-existence.

And what condition was it in now? It was barely beating in tatters as she recollected what Natsu had said. "Gray killed it. I tried to help, but he told me if I stepped anywhere near the fight, he'd personally strangle Happy and the look on his face was sincere. Like he was paying off a favor, and you know how he gets about those."

Everyone knew that the ice mage was barely breathing. Everyone knew that he wasn't going to make it. His heart still beat steadily in his chest, but it would soon give out.

Erza would give her own heart to him if she could. But, heart-wrenchingly, she was stuck staring at his nearly-lifeless body, unable to do anything.

"I know I'm attractive, but you could cut down on the staring," he murmured weakly, but sarcasm and haughtiness still filled the strained words. He opened one eye to look at her, the dark blue orb concentrated on her face. That eye could still pierce her soul, make her want more than what she had.

"Who would want to stare at you?" She scoffed, but the effect was ruined when her voice broke at the end. He slowly moved his arm, grimacing as he did it, and rested his hand on hers. She blinked back tears at his expression, his eyes wide open and smiling as he smirked.

"I owed you. You've saved my life countless times, so I figured I'd even us out." He squeezed her hand, and she realized how much she didn't want him to die. He was the only thing she could constantly count on, the one person who would beat her in the stubbornness category. How would she be able to live if he wasn't there to run to when she had a nightmare or her hairbrush was stuck in her hair? Who would tell her that she looked horrible in her armor because she was being too modest? Who would sleep with her when she longed for human warmth?

"I don't want you to die," she murmured, blinking rapidly, but she couldn't stop the tears. "You can't leave me, too!"

She stared incredulously at Gray. His breathing was even shallower, his face contorted in pain. "Erza, I'll never leave you. You have a brain, right?" His words were fast and she could tell he was having difficulty speaking. "Always remember what we've done."

She wanted him to know what she'd wanted to say for a long time now. It was a pity that only now, as he was dying, she was able to say it. "Gray, I love you."

"I love you too, Erza," he whispered, lifting up his hand and stroking a piece of her hair. "Your hair was always so pretty," he commented, still staring up at her. She didn't want to break eye contact, and that's when she saw his eyes dim. They were no longer the bright dark blue that teased and taunted her, but pools of black nothingness, wanting to suck her in.

She stood up in her chair, silent tears pouring down her face, and stroked his warm face. "How can I forget anything we've done?" she said thickly, trying hard to swallow. "You're my best friend." She stroked his cheek with her thumb, surprised to find moisture around his eye. He'd been crying too?

That was her breaking point. She collapsed into the chair, wailing loudly. Why did everyone in her life end up dying or leaving? It wasn't fair. All she wanted was one person she could love until she died. One person who understood everything she'd been through as a child, someone who'd been orphaned too, and she had that in Gray. But he was dead now.

Maybe she was cursed. Anyone who was close to her would die a painful death, and she would be miserable and alone for the rest of her life. She buried her face in her hands and cried loudly, not wanting to touch Gray in case he turned to dust or something horrible like that.

The screeching of metal across wood disrupted her thoughts. She raised her head from her hands, and a calloused hand started rubbing her back, a chin resting on her shoulder. "We're all here, Erza," Natsu's choked voice said. "We'll always be here, okay?"

She nodded slowly, and she felt a hand interlock fingers with hers. "Thank you, Natsu," she managed, tears still running down her face.

It wouldn't be so hard if she had all of her friends by her side.

* * *

A/N: YOLO = You Only Live Online.


	5. Cake

A/N: My brother somehow managed to eat a triple Baconator. I was barely able to eat a strip of Raising Cane's chicken. I'd love it if you guys sent in requests. I might have like twenty documents, but I'm always writing more, and I'd love to see what you guys have in the way of ideas. Here's "Cake."

OH AND I'M NOT IGNORING YOU GUYS WHO RECENTLY REVIEWED I'M JUST TOO LAZY TO REPLY RIGHT NOW. AND I HAVE NO CLUE WHERE I LEFT OFF.

* * *

"The lady doth protest too much methinks," Gray said, raising an eyebrow at Erza, who was arguing over the price of cake with a shopkeeper. "If it bugs you that much, I'll buy it for you."

"I will not let you purchase a cake for me at these prices," Erza snapped, glaring daggers at him. She looked as though she wanted to maim him for trumping her authority.

"Too bad. I'll take a strawberry shortcake with extra whipped cream," He said arrogantly, smirking at Erza as he handed over the money. The shopkeeper pulled a cake from the back, pulled up the lid of the box and dolloped a generous amount of whipped cream over the top. Erza's knees weakened a bit at the sight (he could tell because she swore under her breath) and he couldn't help but grin. She really wanted it, even if it was an outrageous price.

"Here you go, sir. Have a great day," the shopkeeper said, smiling at Gray pleasantly as he turned back to his work. Gray nodded in response, balancing the cake on one hand and pulling the now-seething Erza out of the shop.

"Would you chill it on arguing with people over prices? It's not like you don't have enough money," He pointed out, dropping her wrist and returning to carrying the cake properly.

"But that cake is not worth what you spent on it!" Erza protested. "It's decent sized, but it looks like it'll taste like cardboard!"

"Stop arguing with me. We are going to eat this cake and enjoy it, dammit." Gray said with an air of finality. Erza deflated, but nodded in response. "Now, how do we get back to the hotel again?"

"We go that way," Erza said, pointing east.

"I thought it was west," Gray replied.

"You're an idiot," she said offhandedly, smiling at him. She appreciated that he'd bought that cake, but he really was an idiot.

* * *

A/N: GO GO GO SEND ME IDEAS.


	6. No Goodbyes

A/N: Never willingly stuff manicotti. You'll end up with cold, cheese-covered fingers and (if you're like me and can't let good cheese go to waste) your fingers will feel seriously molested.

* * *

"Don't wait up for me."

The echo of those words filled her head. She would wait up for him, because he was the one constant in her life. He was the one thing that was as desperately stubborn as she was. They butted heads about every day, whether it was over who ate the last of the whipped cream or what they should do that day. Surely, he didn't mean it.

"I will wait up for you."

The words echo through his head, a shock to his system but then again not really. He expected some sort of challenge from her. She was stubborn, but he admired that in her. He loved how she could take care of herself, but still wanted him by her side. They both needed each other, but he had to know she would sleep until he got back. He had no clue how long he'd been gone. He just wished he wasn't so attached to this girl.

"I might not come back."

She expected these words next. She knew it was true. That didn't make her want him to stay any less, though.

"I'm not going anywhere until you come back."

He knew she'd say something like this next. She was as loyal to him as a dog to its master, so he knew she'd never leave without him.

"I love you."

She knew he always said that before he left, just to tell her how he felt before heading off into the unknown.

"I love you too."

He knew he had her permission to leave when she said those four words. He presses his lips to her forehead before leaving.

She watches his figure shrink as he walks away yet again, refusing to cry until he was gone for good.

* * *

A/N: Ew. Short. But one of the only slightly-depressing things I have left. The next one will be a reviewer-suggested drabble :3

FanFiction Quote of the Day: "His guts would be a good topping to some ice cream."


	7. Candy

A/N: Happy Early Chapter Day! I have your Christmas one-shot prepped already guys. I think you'll like it. :) Dedicated to Diamond Rainbows, for her prompt of Jolly Ranchers. I changed it a bit, as copyright infringement would have me arrested, so I just used long candy sticks. Like the ones you get at specialty candy stores (or Cracker Barrels if you live in the US).

Oh, I haven't done one of these things yet! I don't own Fairy Tail, Gray, Erza, or Mira, but I do own Mira's evil plots and the seriously ridiculous situations our favorite pairing gets into.

* * *

Erza licked at the blueberry candy stick, and Gray couldn't help but stare as her tongue wrapped around it and she moved it in and out of her mouth. He watched, fascinated by her tongue's ability to wrap around like that, and then a more disgusting, male thought filtered in. He shook his head, trying to clear the thought from his brain. He desperately needed brain bleach.

"You're staring at me. Again," she sighed as she pulled the candy out of her mouth. "Oh! Do you want some?" She offered the end she'd just had in her mouth to him. He wasn't sure whether to take it or not, not with the thoughts of her doing something similar to him. "Take it, Gray," she demanded, and for fear of his own life he took it, stuffing the sour blue candy in his mouth and sucking at it. "It's really good, isn't it?"

He nodded, not just to avoid her wrath. It was the perfect combination of sour and sweet, not too hard but at the same time not soft at all. These were the candies he loved, the ones that were perfectly made. Erza had her cake, whereas Gray had his candy sticks. "Who made it?" He asked, pulling the stick from his mouth and passing it back to his childhood friend.

"Garfunkel, right down the street. I bought a dozen and this is the last one. They're so good. These things also have less calories than cake, so I'm thinking about switching." Erza grinned and wrapped her tongue around the stick again, repeating the process she'd had earlier. She was smirking, not an unusual expression, but he was sure she'd figured out why he was staring at her. She started rolling the candy stick in her mouth, before pulling her tomgue back in her mouth and slowly pulling the stick in and out of her mouth. "It's so good," she murmured softly, a seductive tone underlying the innocent one. "I could eat these all day."

"Quit it," he said under his breath. If she didn't know he was suffering from her actions, she did now, and pulled her tomgue out and licked at it that way. He shivered at her lustful expression, the way her eyes looked too big for her face.

"What? I'm just saying, it tastes really good. Geez, I guess you really are a pervert if you're able to put dirty connotations behind my actions and words." She smiled lopsidedly at him, a look that still read lust.

"S-shut up!" He couldn't take it anymore; he bolted out of the guild before anyone could notice how sweaty he'd become.

"Wow, Mira, I'm impressed. It worked really well." Erza sat at the bar after Gray had so boldly ran off. "I didn't know I could have that effect on him."

"Oh, Erza," Mira smiled knowingly, "you've had that boy wrapped around your fingers since we were kids."

* * *

A/N: You know a fanfiction is fabulous when the first sentence is "Okay, seriously, screw pants."

And you know an author is great when she gets Goldfish pelted at her face for yelling at her apple juice for peeing on the table.


	8. Nightmares

A/N: Okay, so I'm feeling some stress (read as: omg i just had a freaking meltdown) due to back-to-back concerts and my six semester exams, which are in about two weeks. I won't be posting tomorrow, so this 1,059 word chapter will have to do. It's a bit of a Debbie Downer, but fluffy and cute. And I'm kinda disappointed that I only got four and three reviews for chapters six and seven, respectively. So, if you're just reading this and not reviewing, I'd love it if you popped in here with a little note, saying you love it or whatever. :)

* * *

Once again, Erza and Gray were on a mission with only one available room in the only hotel in town.

"This is so clichéd," Gray huffed, throwing his bag on the closest bed to the door.

"Cliché or not," Erza answered, "it's what we have. At least we have a place to stay." She comically squeezed the large carriage of belongings into the room, and he scowled at how it took up all the room by the window. "Do you mind if I shower first?" She asked politely.

Warning one. Erza was only polite when she wasn't thinking about what she was saying. In any other case, she was bossy and demanding, unless she was with Gray, which usually meant she backed off, but not to the point of politeness. He chose to ignore it, though, mainly because he didn't want to challenge Titania.

"Fine with me," he answered, peeling off his shirt to climb into bed. "Up at dawn, right?"

"Have to start sometime," she shot him a small smile, which was even more unusual, before grabbing a large bag from her pile and heading into the small bathroom they were sharing.

Gray sighed as he pulled off his pants. Something was wrong with Erza, and he hoped to figure it out before it was too late.

* * *

She'd tried to shower off the anxiety of what Master had told her. She'd even pampered herself with her supposed-to-be-used-to-seduce-men shampoo. She smelled great, her body was relaxed in the warm, plush bed and she'd fallen asleep, only to be awoken to her own screaming. Images flashed behind her closed eyelids and she tried to stop the noises her vocal cords were making. The bed sank in front of her, and two warm hands clasped her shoulders as the screaming stopped, and worried whispers filled her head.

"Erza, what's wrong?" Gray asked, as she pried open her frozen eyelids to look at dark blue orbs filled with worry. She felt tears start to well up, remembering how they'd killed him, and turned her head away. She couldn't let him see her cry again. A hand let go of her shoulder, and a finger and thumb gently but firmly grabbed her chin. "I can't help if you don't tell me," he said, bringing her face to look at his.

"Master said," she started, wiping her eyes. She was glad he hadn't done it for her. "He said that I was going to be the next head of Fairy Tail, most likely." He looked at her expectantly, as though he didn't understand her fear. "I'm not strong enough to protect everyone like he can."

"You're plenty strong," he argued. "Who else can stand a chance against Gildarts for more than a minute, other than Natsu? Also, you're organized, kind and more than able."

"But I can't protect everyone like Master can," she said, secretly glad that Gray thought all these things about her. "What if I can't?"

"Why are you doubting yourself?" He asked sadly.

"I just watched our closest nakama die right in front of me. Wouldn't you be doubting your abilities?" She hated that he looked devastated. She felt him wrap his arms around her tighter, their eyes still locked.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She didn't really want to talk about it, but she needed to. If anyone would make her feel better, it was the boy who'd been beside her since the beginning. "Team Shadowgear, plus Natsu, Lucy, you and me. We were all on an important mission, and somehow the people we were hunting were able to separate me from the rest of you and knocked me out." She adjusted herself so she could rest her head against Gray's shoulder. "When I woke up, I realized I was tied up on a pole, and Levy was conscious on the ground, tied up too. They killed her by slitting her throat. Her eyes were pleading with me as they ran the knife along her jugular." Gray tensed under her, but she didn't care. She had to tell him. "Jet was shot through the heart," she could hear the gunshot rattle through her head, "And Droy was strangled. Ironically," she laughed bitterly, "they used vines to strangle him. The light in his eyes lasted the longest of Shadowgear.

"Lucy had been yelling for justice. The men thought she should be played with first and made Natsu watch. I've never seen him cry that hard before. Lucy struggled against the noose they hanged her from, yelling for me to help, but she eventually died. Natsu was heartbroken, and they doused him in alcohol before burning him.

"But the worst death was yours. They whipped you until your back was in tatters, but you still smiled at me," she started choking then, tears threatening to spill onto Gray's soft scarred skin. "You were slowly bleeding to death, always trying to talk to me, because you knew I could hear you. I watched you die, because I was tied to a pole!" she sobbed finally, burying her face into his shoulder. "You were smiling. I couldn't do anything. If I can't protect you in a dream, how can I keep you safe in real life?"

Gray didn't say anything at first, rubbing circles into her back to try and calm her sobs. She was glad it was just Gray, because he handled things better than Natsu. He held her in the darkness of the night. "Erza, you're nineteen years old. You're not going to be taking over the guild tomorrow. You'll just have to work harder to get better, won't you?" He broke the long silence with this statement, and she felt a little better. She had time still. She could get better. "And we'd never let you separate from us, too."

She looked up at his face, the dark nearly making his dark hair black and his eyes a matching color. His hand held her cheek. "I'll be by your side until the end, Erza."

He tried slipping out of the bed, but she grabbed his forearm. "Don't leave," she whispered, locking eyes with him. He nodded briefly before slipping under her blankets and holding her close to him before she fell asleep.

"I'm not leaving," he said as she drifted into unconsciousness, her sleep peaceful in Gray's arms.


	9. Treasure Hunt

A/N: OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE. I'm used to daily updates but having to go both Wednesday and Thursday without updating hurt SO FREAKING BAD OMG I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO UPDATE SOONER ;_; The updates might be infrequent next week too because of my studying for exams (I'll try to slip on or something) but don't expect something everyday. I'M SO SORRY FOR SETTING THE BAR SO HIGH. ;_;

But here's the second-longest thing in my collection (1,372 words). :D

* * *

"Natsu told me there's treasure in the forest," Gray told Erza, sitting next from her at the table. "We should go find it before he does."

"Why would there be treasure in the forest? And, anyway, it's easy to get lost." Erza replied, not removing her glare from Mira's face as she talked.

"Let's make it a contest. Whoever finds the treasure first gets gloating rights. And," Mira smirked, "the loser has to kiss Gray."

"That makes me sound like a bad person!" Gray protested at the same time Erza said "You're on."

"I'm taking Gray with me, though," Erza added after a few seconds. "He might get lost. You know how boys are."

Mira smirked, and Gray pouted. "I don't get lost like Natsu does! He's hopeless, that Flame-brain."

"Let's head out. It's already noon," Mira said abruptly, walking out from the booth and out of the guild, not even checking to see if the other two mages were following her.

Erza grabbed Gray's wrist and dragged him out of the guild. "Did Natsu give you any hints to where this treasure is?"

Gray shook his head. "He just said it's deep in the forest where no one can find it. We'll be able to find it though. You have the great Gray on your side." He smirked when he heard Erza snort. He hasn't called himself the great Gray in years, not since he'd found her crying on the riverbank.

She was much different now, he noticed. She was starting to look like a girl. Her face wasn't chubby like a little girl's anymore and she had a set look in her expression constantly, not that broken look of a lost little girl. She wore armor, maybe to protect her body; but he guessed that it was more to protect her heart. She'd barely let him in, so he doubted anyone else could worm their way into her heart. He knew she'd had it broken on multiple accounts.

He liked hanging out with her. She was brave, bold, and serious, and also seemed irritated by his presence. He knew she wasn't though, or else why would she always drag him along on her "mini-missions," as Master called them.

Everyone thought Erza hated him, but in all reality, she really did care about what happened to him. She might beat him up, but she'd always ask if he was okay with a concerned tone. He thought it was nice to have such a relationship with a girl. Sometimes, he even forgot she was a girl.

"C'mon, Icicle-brain," she said sternly, pulling on his wrist and yanking him from his thoughts. "You got me into this mess. Help me find that treasure."

She smiled when he nodded obediently. She let him take the lead, giving him the benefit of the doubt. She really didn't think he could find this said treasure, and was relatively sure that there wasn't really any treasure. Natsu was full of crap, and she was sure someone had put Natsu up to making Gray look like an idiot.

She really didn't mind going out in the woods with him. He was a nice boy, even if he was a pervert and stripped constantly. He was incredibly loyal, and seemed willing to do anything for her. Gray was her closest friend, someone she could confide in if she was having problems. The only things she never talked to him about were the things that made her cry. He was always squirmish and nervous when she cried, as though he wasn't sure how to handle it. She didn't blame him, though. She wasn't comfortable with tears either. Another reason why she liked him was the fact that they agreed on nearly everything.

She hid their friendship by being harsh because she really didn't want him to be as attached as he was. She didn't want to betray him or hurt him. She'd hurt her friends before, and she didn't want to hurt Gray. He'd been through things similar to what she'd gone through, so they could relate in the "parentless" area.

They had a lot in common, but they were different too. She didn't rely on him to help her at weren't defined by the other like Levy, Jet and Droy were. You could define Levy by herself, but Jet and Droy were "Levy's lost puppies." Gray was his own person, different than Erza. She liked that he wasn't clingy or needy like some people. She truly liked having him around to pick at because he'd try and pick back. He wasn't afraid of her, and she appreciated that.

"Erza?" Gray asked nervously, pulling the twelve-year-old from her thoughts, "I think I got us lost."

The Exquip mage looked around and saw that, yes, this part of the forest was unfamiliar, dark and certainly scary. She sighed, even though a splinter of fear wormed its way into her heart. "How long have we been lost?" She tried to and think the situation out logically, starting with finding out how far from the familiar part was. "Wait a minute. We're not lost if we're on a treasure hunt. We're just in uncharted territory." She wanted to reassure the younger boy, since he seemed terrified out of his mind. She laced her fingers through his and squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him. "I'll protect you if there's a monster waiting to attack us," she added.

"O-okay," he stammered, clutching her hand still. Her face was slightly flushed from the action, because she'd seen Cana hold hands with her "boyfriends," she called them, but this was completely different, she told herself. Gray was scared, and she was giving a bit of herself to tell him she was there.

Maybe, subconsciously, they were both giving each other a form of support. Erza was lending him her bravery, and he was lending her his trust.

They wandered aimlessly through the forest for about two hours, giving each other calming reassurances as they went because Erza had started getting afraid that they wouldn't find the entrance to the forest after a lot of misleading trails and startling sounds. Erza hated that she'd let the splinter dig deeper and deeper, but Gray had been there and reassured her toward the end. They eventually found themselves at the entrance of the forest, having been more interested in getting out of the forest instead if searching for the rumored treasure. Gray had squeezed her hand when they caught the bright ribbons of light showing the sunset.

Erza's heart rose until she saw Mira with a small box at the entrance to the forest, hands on her hips. "You lost, Erza. Remember what we agreed on?" Mira smirked, making Erza want to punch her in the face. She had just spent hours in a forest after getting lost, and she was not in the mood to deal with Mira and her stupid bets.

"Fine," Erza said defiantly, dropping Gray's hand, grasping his shoulders, and smashing her lips to his.

Gray's half-lidded eyes flew open in shock, having completely forgotten that the loser was supposed to kiss him. Was he supposed to kiss her back? Would she think he was a bad person because he didn't? She broke away before he could do anything and stormed off, leaving Gray in a daze.

He stood there, drop-jawed, watching her stomp off to wherever she was going, still in shock. Erza Scarlet had just kissed _him,_ Gray Fullbuster.

Mira had lost her smirk and was looking between him and her. "Did.. What... Why... Did that just happen? Or was I hallucinating?" She managed to ask Gray, who blinked rapidly to try to make sense of whatever just happened.

"I have no idea, but she's gotta be pissed if she stormed off like that," Gray said with a shrug, not really sure if it had just happened, because his brain was still screaming that he'd been kissed by a girl, by _Erza Scarlet_, no less.

"Maybe you're just that bad of a kisser," Mira's smirk returned as she left to go back to the guild, leaving Gray to walk to the guild alone.

That hadn't been the treasure hunt he'd been expecting.

* * *

A/N: Gray got a kiss! Woo!


	10. Whipped Cream

A/N: So, here's another 1k+ chapter! I still feel so bad about not posting on Wednesday and Thursday, so I thought I'd make it up to you guys and post two ONE SHOTS (woo for length :3) in a row!

* * *

The four members of Team Natsu walk into the empty guild hall after their long mission, glad to finally be home. Their bodies are still battle-tense, their adrenaline still pumping but beginning to slow, and Natsu is the first to notice how bare the guild looks.

"Where is everyone?" He asks rhetorically, and Erza can't decide whether to laugh at the statement or roll her eyes. She does the latter before sitting in the booth across from where Natsu also sat.

"They're all out. Master even had somewhere to be." Everyone jumps when Mirajane speaks, her hands slowly drying a plate with a well-used hand towel in her usual spot behind the bar. "How did your mission go?"

"Good," Lucy answers, sliding into the booth next to Natsu. Erza knows something is going on between them, most likely romantic, but decides not to do anything about it. Besides, she has her own romantic issues at the moment. "We took care of the rumored 'Band of A Hundred Warriors' easily. It just took a while to find them all."

Gray slides into the booth next to Erza and she feels her spine shake from the contact of his clothed thigh against her bare one. She tries to squish her body's cravings, but it doesn't work very well. "Mira, did you get what we talked about before I left with these hooligans?" Gray asks loudly, and Erza tries to place a conversation happening between the Beast Takeover mage and her Ice Mage. Well, _the_ Ice mage. He wasn't actually hers, yet. She wishes he was, though, so in her mind, he'll be her Ice mage.

"I believe so. Are you sure you want to do it now?" Mira asks, and Erza's heart starts to speed up. Her hopes are that he bought her something to make up for the fact that he'd missed her birthday two days earlier, but hadn't had the heart to tell him.

"No one's here to scold us," he replies, sliding out of the booth and approaching the bar. "Four, right?"

Mira smirks at _her _man, and she feels a boiling jealousy, but reminds herself that it's just Mira and she wouldn't try to steal Gray from her. But, just so everyone's clear, Erza wouldn't be afraid to challenge Mira if she thought about getting fresh with him, just like old times when the slightly-older woman would flirt with him just to make Erza angry. But he'd had Mira buy four of it? What could it be? Gray nods and Mira heads back into the kitchen. "Erza, close your eyes," Mira calls, and expecting some sort of present, she obliges. She hears footsteps, Mira coming back with the surprise, and she practically sees Natsu's suppressed grin. She waits anxiously, hoping that whatever it is, it's a good present. Gray owed her from his last "birthday surprise," which had been blamed on Natsu, even though she knows it had been Gray's idea.

Now that she thinks about it, Natsu is blamed for a lot of things that are essentially Gray's fault. She doesn't blame the ice mage, though, because it's one of his endearing traits. "Open your mouth," Gray whispers softly, huskily; she can feel his warm breath right by her ear, and it sends shivers down her spine. The present had changed in her mind and was food-related, obviously, so she opened her mouth, expecting a piece of cake. Maybe she's so frazzled because of her lack of cake. She hasn't had a nice piece of strawberry cake since before they left.

She is greeted by the sound of something spraying in her mouth by aerosol can and a thin, frothy cream fills her mouth before she can yelp in shock. Laughter fills her head, coming from her whole team and Mira. She locks eyes with Gray, who had ran away and was now laughing on the floor about twenty feet away.

Mira chucks a can at Erza from the bar and she catches it with ease, ripping off the cap and chasing after Gray. She watches Natsu and Lucy catch their cans too and follow her to where Gray has gotten off the floor, his laughter dying out and he is running with an expression of '_oh, shit,' _hoping to escape her wrath.

Well, too bad. If you play the "let's tease the almighty Titania" game, you're bound to get burned. Severely. She grinned as he stumbled over his own feet, but she wasn't able to slow down so she didn't ram into Gray.

She rams into his back, her open can squirting white foam all through his hair as he falls face-first into the floor. She giggles at the sight. She rubs the foam through his hair, laying on top of the now-groaning-in-pain Gray Fullbuster. "Get your fat ass off me," he grumbles. She ignores him but straddles his hips allowing him to flip over onto his back. She doesn't want to squish her beautiful boy.

Gray smiles and squirts his can in her face and hair, running his fingers through the strands to mix in the whipped cream. "You're a mess," he acknowledges, and she laughs.

"You are too." She tangles her fingers into his sticky hair before glancing around and finding Natsu chasing a cream-covered Lucy around with a hungry look in his eye.

She watches his hand dig in his pocket to bring out something. "Just in case you aren't wearing your armor and you need something to protect you," he smiles and clasps a warm chain around her neck. The touch at her neck heats her soul. "Happy belated birthday, Erza."

She flushes at the necklace that now dangled from her neck. "Why purple?"

His face becomes slightly redder, and she wants to chuckle at his stutter. "B-because your hair is red and your Fairy Tail mark is blue. It's a mixture of two of the colors that make you who you are."

She grins at him. "Thank you, Gray."

"At least it's better than last year's attempt at a party." Gray smirks. She shudders at the memory of Natsu running around drunkenly with her bra.

"Anything will always be better than _that_ party."

* * *

A/N: I also have Erza's Birthday Party written! :D It's actually my longest, at 1776 words! I'm really proud of it. :D


	11. Names

A/N: Congrats to IcedSoulFairy for being 50th reviewer! And wow, I'm up to 8k+ words. I'm seriously proud of myself for still posting stuff. I'm really proud of this one, too.

Question: Do you guys want more than one Christmas fic? And let me know if you want a sorta-continuation of this one. Sorta like Erza's dying and Gray's trying to make her happy.

* * *

The forest was a good place to go when he need to let off steam. He'd usually freeze a few miles of trees and watching them melt back to normal if he was angry.

This time, though, he saw a tree that reminded him of when he was younger. Natsu had dared him and Erza to write their names on a tree in the middle of the forest, and they'd done just that. His name was on top, choppy and pointy against the aged bark, where her name looked more feminine, curvier and not jagged. There was a little and sign that looked younger than the names, and Gray could tell it was her handwriting. Only Erza made her and signs as cursive capital e's with little lines on top and bottom.

He ran his fingers over the carving, remembering how she'd help guide his hand in writing his name. Back when they were younger, she had to help him with a lot of things. Fighting hadn't been his strong suit, and she helped him with that over the years. She even taught him how to replicate her Heaven's Wheel with his ice swords.

The great Erza Scarlet was currently bedridden with some illness that couldn't be treated because no one knew that it was. Gray was frustrated beyond understanding, and he didn't know why. Maybe because his closest, best friend was dying and he couldn't stop it. He couldn't do anything but sit next to her and try to make her scold him for something he said. He angrily punched right below their names, wincing as his knuckles filled with splinters and spilled blood. He wished his magic was more destructive; he wanted to burn the whole forest down and cut out their names. Maybe he should do it anyway.

He pulled the knife from his pocket and cut into the flesh of the tree, cutting their names out of their tree. He held the tree bark in his hand, turning it over and over in his palm.

He went back to the guild, most members shocked that he was there so soon. Usually when he stormed out of the guild, he was gone for hours. He nodded to Mira before stepping into the infirmary, where Erza was reading a book, her face tinged with a similar color to her hair. She looked up with sad, dark eyes, but they gained a small spark when he walked in. "I thought you'd be killing innocent townsfolk by now." She smiled weakly.

"Nah, they didn't look appetizing enough today. I might start my pillaging around the holidays, when everyone's full from feasting." He sat on the edge of the bed, holding out the wood. "You remember this?"

She grinned at him, even though it looked like it pained her. "Of course. You sucked at carving trees." She ran her fingers along the smooth-cut edge of the bark. "Seems you've gotten better."

"Because I practiced cutting trees whenever you weren't watching me." He smiled at her. "You'll get better, I promise."

She nodded. "I have to, if you're promising."

* * *

A/N: I loved writing Gray's dialogue. It was the best fun I'd had in ages.


	12. Sweet Tooth

A/N: ... I really have no words for this one. I really don't know where it came from.

* * *

Erza knew her sweet tooth would be the death of her one day, but not this way.

"Damn you," she muttered under her breath, picking the cake up from her doorstep. It was a strawberry shortcake with the words "I'm sorry" written on it. He _knew_ that she'd forgive him if he gave her a cake, mainly because she was too busy stuffing her face to even try to make him do push-ups or run laps. And he _knew_ if he gave her a cake, she'd work herself to death in workouts the next day, thus being to busy to make him do punishment laps around the town.

She walked into her dorm and set the cake on the table, sitting in front of it. "I'm not going to eat you," she told it, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away. "You're not winning this one, you stupid cake."

She could almost hear it taunting her. _But Gray loves you enough to buy me, a sweet strawberry cake. Why let that love go to waste? _It mocked her, that damn cake, because it knew she wanted to eat it so badly.

"He only bought you because he knows I want to kill him! That's not love, it's selfishness!" She yelled back at the cake.

_I remind him of you, though,_ the cake tells her. _You're sweet, red, and incredibly well-decorated. He'd buy you one every day if he could afford it._

"What do you know?" she yelled again. "You're just a stupid cake!"

"Erza-san?" A knock at the door interrupted her conversation with the cake. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, Wendy! Would you like some cake?" She asked, realizing she'd left her door wide open. "I couldn't possibly eat this whole thing by myself."

"Are you sure, Erza-san?" Wendy asked, unsure of Titania's mental sanity. "If you're not done..." Wendy hesitated, "talking to it, I'll gladly let you finish."

"No, it was just being cheeky with me. Come on, there's enough for both of us." Wendy stepped into Erza's room hesitantly, which caused the ex-quip mage to smile. She truly loved the youngest Dragon Slayer.

Erza mentally cackled as she shoved the knife into the now-screaming cake.


	13. Sick

Man, I think you guys are gonna get some really depressing stuff here soon. All I'm posting is cutesy fluff and not as much angst/whatever that I thought I'd be doing. I always imagined them to have a more depressingly slow climb into a relationship with a lot of injuries and almost-deaths and yeah.

* * *

Erza sighed, burying herself deeper into the covers as she shivered yet again. She'd managed to catch a cold (she cursed Natsu to an early grave for sneezing on her cake) and now wouldn't be allowed to leave her bed.

Not that she minded, really, but someone would have to go in her place. Levy had already made arrangements with someone, and now all she was able to do was wait until her fever dropped.

"Yo," a masculine voice said, stepping into her room. Levy must've given him a key. "You need anything?"

She peeked over her top blanket to find a fully-clothed Gray sitting on the edge of her bed. "No," she croaked. "I'm okay for now," she coughed, recoiling at the phlegm raising up her throat.

"Yeah, you're okay because you're in bed," he smiled lightly at her. "I got the tea. Try and sleep."

"Okay," she nodded, pulling the covers tighter around her shaking body. She fell asleep quickly, knowing her trusted partner was taking care of her.

Gray set the warm tea on her nightstand and sat on her bed, watching her sleep. Her cheeks had the bright tinge of fever, and he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead to confirm her abnormal body temperature. It wasn't as bad as it had been in the past, and it didn't worry him much. She was Erza, after all, slayer of monsters and any evil force out there.

"Gray," she croaked, eyes opening slightly, "could you get me another blanket?"

"Sure," he nodded, rummaged in the closet nearest to her bed and dug out two blankets to set on her bed. He unfolded one and laid it over the other six. "Is that better?"

"A little, but not much. I bet it'd be warmer if you were here too," she sighed, pulling the blankets tighter around herself. "I don't want to get you sick, though."

Gray wanted, so desperately, to curl up with her, as it was relatively cold in the room. Sure, he was used to the cold, but if he wanted to, he could be picky about the temperature.

What hit him like a load of bricks was that she actually wanted someone to snuggle with. She was usually as snuggly as a rabid black bear. _"Remember, anything she wants, you have to give to her," _Levy had instructed, as if he was inept at caring for a sick person. He mentally shrugged and started to pull the covers away from his fevered partner. Ignoring her protests of the cold, he slipped into bed next to her, bringing her close to his chest. "Is that better, my princess?" he smirked.

She pressed her cheek against his skin. "You are warm," she mumbled, wrapping her arms around him tightly. He did the same to her, and couldn't help but notice how soft her scarlet hair felt against his calloused hands, almost as if silk strands adorned her head. "I don't think anyone's held me like this before," she whispered. "It's nice."

Gray had never considered that before. She hadn't had a father to hold her in her most desperate times, only her friends from the Tower of Heaven, and he highly doubted they ever treated her like that. "Your childhood sucked," he said, oh-so-eloquently.

"Yours wasn't much better," she countered, eyes still closed. Gray smiled and stroked her hair, enjoying the closeness of the fearless Titania.

"But I had a loving parent who taught me how to strip habitually. You had a boy who was possessed and your other friends," he stated, holding her tighter. He knew they were crossing some boundary into one another's territory, but he didn't mind. They had to talk eventually.

"I guess you're right. My childhood did suck. But now's what matters, and you know that better than anyone, Gray." She smiled weakly at him. "Thank you for everything you've done."

"I made you tea. That isn't worth a thanks."

"But your tea is better than Mira's," she protested. "And it's not just for the tea. Thank you for always being there."

Both of their minds flashed to previous encounters, but Gray's lingered on the day she'd wanted to cut her arm off to keep from being poisoned. "I couldn't let you do that to yourself."

"I know," she acknowledged, eyes drifting shut again. "I'm glad I picked you," she murmured before falling asleep.

"Me, huh?" he whispered. What did she mean by that? As a partner, or something more?

* * *

"I told you you'd get sick," Erza retorted, setting Gray's cup of tea on the nightstand.

"I was bound to catch it anyway," he replied. "What would I do without Titania to care for me?"

"You'd starve, dehydrate, and most likely die." She shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Better me than Juvia, am I correct?"

"She's nice, but too clingy. She'd probably be trying to jump me as I slept."

Erza smiled. "Get some sleep, lady killer. I expect that we'll be taking a job as soon as you're feeling better."

Gray smirked and nodded, closing his eyes and feeling a warm body slide under the blankets next to him. He didn't mind being sick, not if it meant that Erza Scarlet would lay next to him.

* * *

A/N: Turtles, Frogs or Cats? (answer in a PM! :3)


	14. Flirting Attempts

A/N: You guys won't have to worry about angst until this weekend. :) This is sort of a continuation of Whipped Cream, but not really, but they're both centered around how dangerous whipped cream is for a teenager's hormones.

* * *

Erza stuck a finger in the container, digging out another mouthful of the sweet cream. She knew she shouldn't do it, but the topping was so tasty that she couldn't resist.

"Are you eating my whipped cream?" Gray asked, looking up from his game of chess with Lucy's spirit. He was holding it hostage until Natsu gave Lucy the present he'd bought her. Basically, Gray was setting Natsu up for an angry Lucy, but Erza wasn't in the state of mind to punish him.

"Does it matter?" She replied, digging out another fingerful. "Someone has to eat it." She licked her finger slowly, rolling her tongue around it to get all the cream off.

"Don't eat it like that. Get a spoon," he sighed at the chess board, moving another pawn, not even looking at her. She nearly dropped the tub in shock; how could anyone resist her charms? She was Titania, the greatest warrior in Fiore, and she was flirting with Gray, a lesser-but-almost-as-amazing mage, who had the nerve to ignore her? She'd have to try a different tactic. Maybe a shoulder massage, or a punishment game after a round of chess? Certainly that would make the ice mage take heed of her presence in his house.

"How did I lose to a thing that can't even talk?" Gray yelled, pulling at his hair and pacing in circles. She giggled at the sight; a distressed Gray was even easier to tease. She pulled on his arm and grabbed his shoulders. When he stopped moving abruptly, she started rubbing circles into his tense muscles with her thumbs.

"It's been a while since you've played, right?" She asked with a smirk, hoping he'd pick up on another connotation to her words. "It gets easier after the first time."

"Practice makes perfect," he mumbled, a light moan spilling from his mouth when she hit a particularly stubborn knot. "Thanks, Erza. I'll play another round, you stupid spirit!" Gray yelled, sitting back across from Lucy's spirit.

Erza sighed. This would be a lot harder than she anticipated.


	15. Stop

A/N: I just want you guys to be on this happy Grayza high before I start posting all this depressing death stuff because I can slowly feel my emotions edging toward angst/death fics again. And I want to thank Milafox12, DiamondRainbows, and Iced Soul Fairy for reviewing every single chapter of this story! It's you guys who keep me updating every day, because I know you look forward to my postings. :)

I was going to post this yesterday, but my brother kidnapped my laptop and I might've fallen asleep... This chapter is kind of weird. Like, I'm not sure if I like it that much. But, Jellal is dead? Yay?

* * *

They sat in the train together, thighs touching, and he wanted to hold her to his chest, wanted to let her fall asleep to his steadily beating heart, to not let her wallow in self-pity. He was sure that's what she wanted to do, if he wasn't in the train with her. He knew she was strong, but watching your childhood best friend die to protect you and your new best friend couldn't be easy. If he'd been in this position, he'd be upset too. But he had to let her have her space; that's another thing he'd want in the situation. So, he let her sit next to him, her hand clenching tightly on his, so tightly that his fingers were starting to turn blue. He didn't mind, though. She needed something solid to hold on to.

She wanted a distraction, something that could pull her out of her depressive state. She missed the man who'd held her heart for so long, but she couldn't help but feel that it hadn't been his for a long time. It'd been Gray's for that time, and he was the one who had come with her to Jellal's funeral. He was the one who would do anything for her, the one who'd try to protect her. He'd die for her; had proven that over and over. The question was if she really wanted him. She kept thinking it over, and decided that maybe a distraction wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Gray felt her let go of his hand, and he flexed the fingers to get the blood flowing back into the appendages. Focusing on watching his fingers lose their blue tint, he didn't realize that Erza was adjusting herself, and in one fluid moment had moved herself so she sat on his lap, knees on either side of his hips. His breath caught in his throat as she drew a line down his cheek slowly, her face mere inches from his. Her eyes were half-lidded, and all Gray would comprehend was that his heart was beating like a drum, hammering in his chest so loud he knew she could hear it. Her hands cupped his face and he felt her slowly, confidently, pressed her lips to his. Panic welled up in his throat, _this is Erza kissing me and oh God what is happening I'm dreaming that has to be a dream there is no way this is really happening, _making him wonder what was really going through her head. He could feel her heartbeat, fast and erotic like his. Her hands had slid back into his hair, tangling into the dark blue locks, and her wanted to do the same, but was this right? Yes, he was kissing her back, allowing her to slide her tongue into his mouth, but was this really what she wanted?

She'd been craving contact like this for years, but had never found the self-confidence to actually pull the ice mage aside and kiss him until he was brain-dead. But she was confused as to why he wasn't giving into her, pulling at her blouse or at least holding her face. She didn't understand. Had she read his face wrong all these years? She'd seen the brooding, longing looks on his face for years, and they'd managed to be close friends, but what was holding him back? She plucked at his shirt buttons, amazed that his shirt was still on his body, and moving her lips to the sharp angles of his jaw line and running her fingers across the scars on his chest. He'd been so incredibly distant from her lately, she wanted him back. She felt him arch against her when she pressed her lips below his earlobe, and gasped when a throaty "Stop," came from his mouth. She pulled away, not wanting him to get mad. She got off his lap, sitting next to him in awkward, tense air.

"Why?" He heard her mumble after a while. "Didn't you like it?" He shook his head, wishing he could trust himself to speak. He _did_ like it, _damn was she forceful, _but he didn't want their relationship to start off like that. It was too fast; too rushed. She was acting like she might die. He looked at her scarlet hair which hid her face, but he could see the shine of tears on her face. Damn it, he'd made her cry.

"Look," she heard him say after a few moments of the cold silence, reminding her of how hurtful he _could_ be, because when you push too hard on ice, you hurt yourself from the shattered pieces. "I actually did like it." His gaze felt like the kiss: warm and yielding, whereas usually his gaze was hard and icy. He also tasted like the cherry slushies Mira would sometimes make. She asked the question with her eyes. _Why did you stop me?_ "If we're going to be in a relationship, it needs to be slow. That's what you're getting at, right?" He raised an eyebrow in addition to his questioning tone. _Are you that big of an idiot?_ She rolled her eyes in response, which earned a chuckle from Gray.

"I guess we can go slow," She smiled and grabbed his hand, interlocking fingers with his, the same thing they'd done maybe five minutes earlier. "A relationship is only fair if the two involved are in agreement of a speed," Gray had to agree; Natsu complained a lot about his relationship with Lucy ("She wants me to be loving and doting but that's really embarrassing.") and didn't want his own to be messed up. Holding hands and now having her head on his shoulder was beginner's stuff, and he knew that once they were used to this, they could move on to more advanced actions.

"Besides," he added, "we have all the time in the world."

And she had to agree.

* * *

(P.S. This is going to replace the absent Fairy Tail chapter. :))


	16. thoughts

I'm so sorry for not updating yesterday! If it makes you guys feel any better, I was writing. And kinda-sorta studying? But anyway, I thought I'd try something different this time, where Gray and Erza can read each other's minds. And the next few one-shorts are short. Well, maybe except for Christmas Eve's/Christmas's. Those might be long. :) This is a whopping 1238 words, definitely soemthing I'm insanely proud of, too!

* * *

_he's looking right at me oh gosh why is there something on my face _

_she looks so cute with whipped cream on her lip i wish i could go lick it off but she'd gut me like one of happy's fishes _

_maybe he just wants to look at me i mean it's not like i'm ugly but he's never just flat out stared at me maybe he thinks i'm pretty _

_she's so pretty i wish i could tell her how much i really like her why is she staring at me like im crazy am i staring oh crap_

_now he's looking at me like i'm crazy well newsflash fullbuster you started staring first and i won't back down _

_she's so stubborn why won't she look away crap am i blushing but ugh she's so pretty i can't not look she turns heads no matter where she goes but i bet if she had a ring on her finger guys would back off with the flirting maybe i should take her out on a date i know she likes me so why not _

Erza and Gray sat, staring at each other for a long time. Different thoughts were running through their heads, but they essentially meant the same thing: I like you. Do you like me? Lucy could feel the tension between the two, watching as they seemed to be talking through thoughts, like they could read each other's minds. It wouldn't surprise Lucy if they could.

* * *

_erza get out of my head i know you know what i'm thinking but you could at least mentally berate me instead of physically _

_gray i'm trying but it's too easy to get sucked into your thoughts. your brain is like a black hole; full of nothing and sucks in anything near it _

_hahaha you're so funny. but really get out of my head. there's a reason why thoughts are private _

_trust me i don't want to see your horny mental pictures just as much as you want to. _

Erza and Gray didn't speak aloud anymore, Lucy noticed. They had some sort of weird spell cast on them, and now they never spoke, but just exchanged looks. Gray would go up and order two plates of food from Mira, one of Gray's food and another of strawberry cake. Sure, anyone could order food for Erza, but when he could also know what drink to buy was odd. "Erza and Gray are acting weird," Natsu said, plopping next to Lucy. "Like, weirder than usual." "Weirder than you, Lucy!" Happy added. Lucy glared at the feline, but didn't say anything. Something was wrong, and Lucy had to find out.

* * *

_are you okay, gray?_

_gray, what's wrong? you can tell me._

_please answer me._

_ignoring me won't work. i won't go away._

_gray?_

Erza had no clue what was wrong. He wasn't talking to her, but she could feel his consciousness like a second train of thought. It had woken her up, and now she was slipping into a pair of slippers to find out what was wrong.

_gray? please tell me what's wrong._

_it won't work, gray. i can read your mind. i know you're there._

The exquip mage was terrified. Usually he'd get irritated with her constant prodding and at least mutter some sort of something, just to reassure her. He was dead silent, but she could feel his consciousness ebbing. She didn't know why they were able to read each other's thoughts, but she was grateful. It made her realize how much she actually appreciated the ice mage. He was good comic relief. And he knew she couldn't always be strong. They had a special past; that's why she couldn't imagine herself with any other partner. She loved Natsu like a little brother, but there was something more with Gray. She could feel it down to the marrow in her bones. That's why she was so terrified. There was no way she could lose him. She was trying to keep a level head, but this was Gray, her boy, and if something bad happened to him, she'd never forgive himself. He'd protected her, saved her, from so many things, and she didn't want him to die with her still owing him. The only way she could repay him was to stay by his side until the end of time.

_gray? _

_pain - screaming - agony - blood _

His thoughts hit her brain as incredibly choppy fragments, but she knew where he was. She picked up the pace, running out of Fairy Hills at breakneck speeds to help her friend. gray,

_just hang in there. i'm on my way, okay? please stay with me._

His consciousness was weakening as she bolted to his house toward the outskirts of town. A few brief memories resurfaced as she saw the outline of run-down house in the dark. She rammed her shoulder into the weak door, grimacing as the door shook under her weight but didn't break open. "Gray!" She yelled raspily. She hadn't spoken for a few days, finding the reading-minds much simpler. She thrust her shoulder into the door again, pleased when it fell in - she'd pay to have it replaced again - and found Gray on the floor, three long, thin slices in his abdomen spilling blood.

"Erza," he croaked, half-lidded eyes opening slightly. "It was the guys from the mission, the ones we lost."

"Shh," she pressed her finger to his lips. Relief was starting to relax her shoulders, but she still needed to fix him up. She ran into the bathroom and pulled the first aid bag, placed in the house by Erza herself, from the medicine cabinet. As she went back to bandage Gray up, she readied the bottle of rubbing alcohol. "This'll sting," she didn't even try to sugarcoat it as she dumped the disinfectant on his bloody chest, frowning as he hissed. She grabbed the gauze from the bag next and started wrapping the sterile cotton around the wounds.

"Damn, woman," he let out a breath that sounded like his earlier hiss, "you could at least try to be a bit gentler. I'm not dead." His eyes shone with appreciation as she finished cleaning him up.

"Can you move then, Mr. I'm-Not-Dead?" she asked, scooting behind him and gently lifting up his head before settling it on her crossed-legged lap. She was glad she could tell when he was conscious and awake, or else he would've bled out and died. She stroked his hair, tangling her fingers in the pillow-caused tangled. "So, they just came and attacked you while you slept? Cowards," she let out a heavy breath as Gray nodded his agreement with her synopsis of the situation.

* * *

Lucy watched as the two mages chatted animatedly about something she couldn't catch. Erza reached across the table and took Gray's bandaged hand in hers, and Lucy couldn't help but notice that how they looked at each other now was different. Lucy smiled. They deserved to be in love, after all they'd been though in their short lives.

_fin_


	17. Poetry, As Attempted By

__A/N: Oh hey there. I'm updating again (instead of studying bwahahah :P) and I have two things to say. One, Sword Art Online is the best, worst anime ever. It hurts so bad. So, so bad. Secondly, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO BE CALLED TITANIA BUT ERZA. And I have your present ready, my cuties! Or, almost. It's about 3/5 done right now.

* * *

_Poetry_,_ as attempted by Gray F._

"I watch as your red ruby hair flutters in the breeze,

"The sun casts beautiful shades of tangerine orange, dandelion yellow and blood red onto your shadowed figure.

"Your chestnut eyes glimmer when they see the place you call home, the rowdiness of the members inside the large, comfy building.

"And when you look so happy about being home, it allows my heart to reciprocate yours.

"We are one being, you and I, for that is how we have grown to be over our adolescent years together."

* * *

_A poem by Erza Scarlet_

"Love is a battlefield, as two people shoot bullets that are sometimes received and sometimes the bullets whiz right past their heads. The bullets are actions, and the guns are the emotions.

"Sometimes, if the bullets hit their intended mark, then the weapons are exchanged and the bullets don't come as a surprise anymore. The shooters are aware that they're being shot at, but they don't seem to care anymore.

"Love is a lot like that, falling and being hurt but eventually being able to try again. Eventually, the person finds who they're supposed to be joined to, who they're supposed to become one person with.

"Everyone has their other half out there somewhere. Maybe they just haven't been introduced to you yet."

* * *

Mira smiled gleefully as she read over the poems her favorite non-couple wrote. Gray's was aimed directly at Erza, but Erza's was a lot deeper in meaning. She'd given them both the same prompt, being one with someone else, and this is what came out of their beautiful brains.

Mira liked Gray's poem because he thoroughly tried to sound like a poet, even crossing out parts that weren't descriptive enough. Erza just used an extended metaphor, but it was a good one at that, and explained her reasoning behind said extended metaphor.

Now she had a definite confession from Gray and a good, thematical poem from Erza that she'd pin on her wall.

Mira had to say, tomorrow was looking awfully exciting, given Gray's interesting poem.


	18. Holding Hands

A/N: ... I'm crying. This is a WHOPPING 4,492 WORDS. I was thinking it'd be a maximum of 3k, but I surpassed that with so much room to spare. So much. I doubt that I'll ever write anything with more words than this unless the main characters are my own characters. The ending is so freaking fluffy it makes me want to vomit rainbows and cry cotton candy clouds. Please, don't be afraid to tell me how much you sobbed at the end. Why can't every OTP be like that? And the ending can fit in every one-shot that I've written, except for the death ones.

I'd like to thank every single reviewer. Without you all, I wouldn't have written this beautiful one-shot, and wouldn't have cried tears of joy. So, happy holidays. Enjoy.

* * *

Gray contemplated on how to go about the task at hand. He wanted to prove to Erza that he cared about her, and actions spoke louder than words. She was brave, bold, and rash; beautiful, sweet, and kind. She'd changed so much since he first met her, and now, eight years later, he was finally going to tell her how much he loved her.

Through holding hands.

But how would he go about this retched plan? He still wasn't sure if slowly inching his hand toward hers would get him a punch to the face or not. Maybe they could on a walk by the river where he'd first found her crying?

Gray scribbled the idea on a napkin at the empty booth he sat at, trying to make a list of everything he could do, if one plan failed (or was sabotaged by Natsu; either option was possible, the ice mage acknowledged sadly).

He could also take her out for a movie, something with blood and guts that she'd find entertaining, and he could slowly inch his hand toward hers and hopefully she didn't end up punching him in the face. In the end, he always worried about being punched in the face.

All good plans needed three ideas, so Gray was attempting to think of another way he could possibly grab her hand and hold it in his own. He racked his brain, trying to think of something.

"How about a romantic dinner set up by _moi_?" Mira suggested, scaring Gray out of his shirt. She giggled at him and ruffled his hair. Even though the barmaid was only two years older than him, she still ruffled his hair, like he was a little kid. Which he wasn't. He was a fifteen year old almost-adult, and he hated that she treated him like he wasn't.

"Shut up. You don't know what I'm doing," he snapped at her. He didn't need Mira's help for this. Real men didn't need help planning their romantic advances. And anyway, Mira would make them kiss or something like that (and it's not that Gray didn't like the idea, but they'd kissed before, which was Mira's fault too, and Gray didn't want Erza to feel like she had to, like she had then. Now that he thought about it, Mira was the main cause of his romantic issues with Erza, with Natsu taking a close second) and he didn't want to rush things. Holding hands was enough for now.

"Well, I think it's cute that you're finally going to tell her you like her. When did you realize it?" She asked, sitting across from him at the booth. Gray felt like she was acting high and mighty, like _she_ knew that he liked her even before he knew it himself. There was no way that could be the case, though, because there was no way women were that good with emotions. Especially women like Mira who thought they could play matchmaker with everyone in the guild. Gray wouldn't allow her to ruin this.

"Shut up. And just so you know, I've known for a while now. So, just go liquor up Macao and let me think." Gray knew he was being rude, but she'd started it. She'd interrupted his thoughts, _which were supposed to be private, _and he wanted to plan everything all the way before Erza came back from her first S-class mission.

Gray sighed, banging his head against the table. Maybe he could ask Cana what she liked to do on dates. She went on plenty of them (and went home with quite a few of them too, but that wasn't Gray's thing to judge. If she wanted to be easy, then so be it) and she might know what Erza would like.

"Hmm." Mira still hadn't left, and took on a pondering expression. "Maybe you could just outright tell her. She'd think it's brave."

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Gray hissed but still considered the idea a possibility. Erza smiled upon bravery. Maybe that'd be his last resort.

"I'm just trying to help, Gray," she smiled at him weakly before heading back to the bar. He jotted the idea down when he was sure she wasn't looking before deciding that he'd start his plan as soon as Erza came home.

* * *

"Wanna take a walk?" Gray asked subtly as Erza sipped at her drink. She'd come home about an hour earlier, her armor tattered, scorched and dented, and she'd promptly switched into her typical blouse-and-skirt outfit, the one that showed off how much she'd changed since she'd first shown up at the guild.

"Where to?" She asked, setting her glass on the table and getting out of her seat. She was taller than him by about an inch, which bugged him to no end, but he didn't mind that she didn't ask why, just where.

"Just around," he shrugged. She mirrored the gesture back and they walked out of the guild together. He loved that she seemed to trust him at a deep level. He hoped that she'd trust him until they both died. Hopefully, that would be of old age, and that neither of them tried to die for the other.

"It was a rough mission," she said after a few minutes of walking through town. The silence wasn't awkward, just them lost in their own thoughts. "It would've been nice to have had my partner with me."

"It was your first S-class. I couldn't ruin that for you," he said, subconsciously walking the path toward the river as the sun started to set. She shot a small smile at him, and his heart started beating faster. He was shocked that just a smile could affect his physical state, but now anything that she did toward him made his stomach flutter and his heart speed up.

They walked in companionable silence, his hand twitching toward hers. He wanted to spill his guts right there, standing on the bridge near her favorite spot as a child, but he couldn't. His tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth and he couldn't form a coherent thought.

She looked so beautiful against the sunset, the oranges, reds and yellows complimenting her scarlet hair wonderfully, giving her the look of an angel. She was his angel, though; someone sent by heaven to keep him sane growing up. He would've gone crazy if he only had Natsu. She looked so much older than sixteen. She could pass for twenty, could probably persuade some men into giving her alcohol of she begged enough and wore the right outfit. His hand brushed hers, and for a moment he almost fit his fingers between hers, but she pulled away, a light blush on her face. "I need to get back. Bye, Gray," she shot a tiny smile at him before running off.

He caught a glimpse of pink underwear when her skirt flared up as she ran.

* * *

Gray grinned at the poster on the streetlight. _The Great Battle _sounded and looked like a bloody, gory, absolutely not-girl-appropriate movie. He guessed that Erza would love it. He ripped the paper off the lamppost and rushed back to the guild.

"Erza!" He panted when he stormed into the guild hall. He stormed up to her perch at the bar and held the flyer in front of her face. "Do you want to see it?" He asked, peeking around the flyer to see her face. She was smirking, as though she knew what his plan was. She snatched the paper from his hand and looked over the details at the corner of the paper (A/N: why can't American movie flyers be cool like German ones, with the times listed _on_ the flyers?), nodding as she looked over the times.

"Sounds like fun. You'll be paying, correct?" She asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at him. He snatched the flyer back from her.

"Of course! I'm not that rude. A real gentleman pays for an outing he offers!" This got some hoots and hollers from the guild, and Gray knew that money was being exchanged for how this "date," as they called it, would end up. "I-I'll get you at six tomorrow, Erza!" He yelled, ignoring the redness of his face as he stormed out of the guild. Guffaws and outright mocking laughs followed him as he stormed off, making a piece of ice and pressing it to his face. Since when had he gotten so nervous around her?

He wore a not-as-beat-up button up and his favorite trousers when he walked into the guild the next evening. His jaw dropped when he saw her waiting at a table by the door, a haltered cream sundress with a brown ribbon around her ribs gracing her body, stopping right above her knees. One might think she actually was going on a date, but she assured everyone that she wanted to be "worth the price of a past-matinee movie," which was taken as sexually as possible by the older members. She stammered as a light flush dotted her cheeks that matched his, trying to cover up the statement.

"No - That's not - I didn't mean it like that!" Hearing the Great Titania stammer was like watching Natsu say he actually cared about Gray; about as rare as a diamond in a coal factory. "Let's go before I have to beat someone up," she said sternly, grabbing Gray's wrist and dragging him out of the guild, cat calls and suggestive statements thrown at them from every corner.

They walked down the street together, footsteps matching in length and weight, and Gray couldn't help but smile at the fact that she'd been tongue-tied and red-faced as he had been the night before. She could be awkward when she was caught off guard. Maybe that was what had happened at the river the other evening, about a week ago. She'd been just as nervous as he was. Did that mean that she liked him just as much as he liked her?

"You're being oddly quiet," Erza acknowledged, breaking their silence. Silence between them was never awkward, just quiet and enveloping if one was absorbed in thought while the other wasn't.

"Just thinking. Twenty Jewels should be enough for tonight, right?" He asked, a sincere smile on his face. She looked so dazzling, and he couldn't help but notice... "Are you wearing makeup?" She _never_ got that fancied up when she went on a date. She'd gone on a total of two, and both guys had been terrible people in Gray's book, maybe because they were taking his angel from him, but she'd worn her blouse and skirt for those dates. She was wearing a dress for him. Did she like him more than those other guys?

"Mira insisted on it," she said, turning away from him, and his heart deflated a bit until he saw a small smile on her lips. "And she'd insisted on the dress too, but that didn't take nearly as much persuasion as the makeup did."

"It looks good on you," he acknowledged without thinking, slapping his hands on his mouth for speaking so suddenly. This was why he wasn't a big talker at times. He messed things up.

"Thank you, Gray," she chuckled, the flush on her cheeks still there and he thought she really did look like an angel. All she needed were some wings, and she'd be all set. If this were some other girl and he was feeling like being a lame guy in hunt of a girl, he'd ask if it hurt when she fell from heaven. If he said that to Erza, she'd most definitely punch him in the face.

When they arrived at the movie theater after walking in silence, Gray bought the tickets and the two headed inside. "I'll get the candy if you save me a seat."

She nodded curtly. "I really like Skittles," she added before heading off to the theater room. He waited patiently in line as everyone seemed to need to buy boatloads of snacks.

"Can I help you?" The teenage boy running the cash register, who looked not much older than Gray himself, asked in a bored tone by the time Gray made it to the front of the line.

"Can I get two drinks, a Sprite and a root beer, two packages of Skittles, and two cherry candy sticks, please?"

The boy, whose nametag read Mark, fetched the items he asked for, and Gray paid him with eight Jewel. Right as Gray was about to leave, Mark said, "That's a pretty hot girl you got there."

Gray didn't respond and headed off into the theater. He knew she was pretty, but he hated it when guys said that girls were hot. What did it mean, anyway? Girls shouldn't be treated like objects. They should be treated as people, too, because that's what they were. A lesson he'd learned watching Erza beat up guys who dared to touch her.

He found her sitting toward the back of the packed theater, waving him over with a eager expression. He tossed her her a bag of Skittles, which she caught in the outstretched hand, and when he sat down he gave her the root beer. "You knew exactly what to get me," she said in awe, sipping on the drink.

"I've been around you for seven years of your life. Of course I know that root beer makes you feel bubbly and Skittles are the sweetest candy." He said, before biting his tongue and realizing how creepy it sounded that he knew that.

Instead of calling him creepy or looking at him awkwardly, Erza laughed and ruffled his hair affectionately. He didn't understand why girls liked to do that to him, especially the ones that were like his older sisters. Well, he didn't consider Erza like an older sister, because that'd just be creepy. "Thank you for taking me."

"It's a reward for doing well on your mission," he replied.

Just then, the movie started, taking them on a journey into the life of Damon Montesquieu (A/N: awkward moment when autocorrect knows the last name I wanted...) who was a member of the average-man's military in an early war in Fiore's history.

Erza flinched when Damon was forced to kill his girlfriend for being disloyal to the country. "Is this based on a real story?" she whispered. He would hate to be in Damon's place, having to shoot Erza through the temple because she'd been framed for sneaking information into a bordering country.

"I hope not," he whispered back, and he could see her moving her hand closer to his. Was this the big moment? Would he finally be able to admit his messed-up feeling for the exquip mage? He inched his fingers toward hers, his heart beating faster, even if it wasn't because Damon was in the middle of a fight scene. Just as their fingertips touched, and Gray was about to tell her how much he really cared about her, someone stuck their head between them.

"So, what movie is this? It looks awesome. Ooh, Skittles!" Natsu spoke in a loud whisper, stuffing his hand in Erza's bag of candy.

Gray wanted to castrate, maim and then kill the dragon slayer. He had ruined a perfect moment and, even worse, was eating food that he'd bought for _Erza_. He had to keep his cool, though, because she would most definitely kill him if he killed Natsu.

"_The Great Battle_," Erza replied, swatting at Natsu's hand with the hand that he'd _just_ slightly touched. There was a tingly feeling in the appendages on his hands, and he smiled to himself. They'd both moved somewhere in their relationship. They'd just touched fingers, until Flame-Brain stepped in.

... Now that he thought about it, that was the lamest thing to be proud of, but he didn't care. She hadn't punched him in the face!

At least, not yet.

They finished the movie with Natsu being an annoying add-on, asking every possible stupid answer on the planet, and almost every female in the theater was crying as the end played, Damon's apparently-not-dead-girlfriend sobbing on his grave. Erza even looked a little teary-eyed. As the lights came back on and the theater started to clear out, Gray found himself wondering if Erza would do something like that girl did. The girl in the movie was a crybaby, Gray personally thought, but even strong girls could cry, as he'd seen firsthand too many times.

Gray shook his head to try and clear the thoughts from his head. He couldn't think of Erza like that. She'd beat him up if she knew what he thinking about.

"Did you like the movie?" She asked, and Gray couldn't help but this that she'd been a lot more open with him than she had been recently. Now, she was back to being her usual Erza-like self, mainly because Natsu was there too. Gray damned him to hell mentally, preferably a hell with ice instead of fire.

"Yeah, it was good," Gray shrugged noncommittally. Truth was, he was too caught up in his own thoughts to really pay attention to what had been happening to poor Damon.

"It was so awesome!" Natsu yelled, jumping around excitedly. He made all different sorts of sounds and gun motions, much like a young child.

"Sometimes, I feel like he's our child, and we have to keep him in check," Erza whispered to Gray, her cheeks red again. He felt his heat up as well, but whether it was the thought of having a child with her or the thought of that... _thing_ being their child that reddened his cheeks, he wasn't sure.

They silently ignored Natsu on the walk back to the guild, where he parted ways with his hopefully-more-than-a-friend and the irritating dragon slayer.

"Goodnight, Erza," he told her before taking off.

"Bye, Gray!" she waved him off with a smile that made his stomach flip-flop.

* * *

Gray felt terrible. It wasn't a physical pain, but rather a mental pain capable of much worse torture than his body could put him through. He didn't know why his brain was making him feel so down, but it was really unpleasant and everyone was picking up on his saddened state.

"I haven't seen you this down since you first joined," Mira said, perching on the other side of the bar. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Mira. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone. He just wanted to be left alone. Mira seemed to pick up on this, but still patted his head and tangled her fingers in his unkempt hair. "Is it because of last night? Erza was pissed at Natsu and basically mopped up the floor with him. It saved me a lot of work," she giggled at her own joke, but Gray didn't find it funny. His 'friend' had ruined his first semi-date with a girl and he was down about it. "Don't you still have plan C?"

"I can't do that. She doesn't like me, or else she would've said something last night. And anyway, why should I? Natsu will just mess it up again." Gray huffed, not looking at Mira and her glare, which was aimed at one of the older members. He felt her fingers scratch at his scalp, and he had to admit it felt good. He wished it was Erza, though.

"Look, I sincerely apologize for that. I tried to make sure everything went okay, but some people like meddling in my plans. But," she dropped her voice, still scratching at his scalp, _like she knew it made him feel better_, "she really likes you. I can tell. You should just tell her, Gray. Or are you afraid of rejection?" She raised a curious eyebrow at him, and something in him snapped.

"I am not afraid of rejection! Where is she?" Je asked the second part loudly, scanning the guild. Mira had a bright smile on her face, and he nodded to acknowledge her help. He felt a lot better, given this challenge from the barmaid.

Just as he asked, she walked into the guild, sporting her usual blouse and skirt. He stormed up to her, but before he could ask her to step outside, she pulled him out and to the sidewalk in front of the guild.

"I'm sorry about last night," he offered, leaning against the fence. "I would've knocked him out, but I figured you were looking for a normal evening instead of something like the guild."

She stared at him in surprise. "That's what I was thinking at the time. It's odd how much we think alike, Gray."

"Were you trying to hold my hand?" He blurted out, immediately slapping his hands over his mouth again. She giggled at the childlike action, moving in front of him and setting her hands on his hips.

"Well, we needed to talk. I can't keep dancing around you, and I would've liked to talk after last night - you were really bold in inviting me to see a movie with the whole guild watching - but there was a certain flame brain that would've interrupted." She took one hand and cupped his cheek, causing his heart to speed up even faster than it already was beating. "I want this, I want _you_, but I need to be stronger to protect you. I really do care about more, more than I should care for a _nakama, _but I'd rather focus on my career right now."

"Which is hunting monsters, killing things and being a scary, puts-the-fear-of-God-in-every-man-on-the-planet female Exquip mage?" Gray asked, a small smile on his lips. He looped his arms around her waist, suddenly daring to touch her like he'd thought about occasionally in the past. "Okay, but I can't wait forever."

She visibly brightened at his acceptance of her plan. He loved that he could male her smile like this. "Six years. Six years and then, if we're still at this stage with each other, then we can be a couple."

Gray nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

It had been 13 years in the real world, but only six for them. Today was her 22nd birthday, and today would be the day that Gray declared his love for her. He had waited for six years, and his love for the exquip mage had grown exponentially.

He'd watched her turn down countless men. Every time one of them would ask for an evening for dinner, she'd politely decline. When asked for an explanation, she always replied, "I have someone waiting on me."

Sometimes, they'd seek each other's warmth in the dead of night. He knew what weaknesses Erza had, and her one fear was that she wouldn't be able to protect her nakama. She had frequent dreams where she'd watch her friends die, or even him, but he'd been there to hold her im his arms until she felt better and he'd reassured her that no one was going to die because of her inability to protect them. Once, he had gone to her with a nightmare, something he'd been so utterly mortified about come the next morning, but she had just told him that nightmares were common in their line of work and ruffled his hair.

No one questioned their relationship, except for Mira. She'd try to do things to embarrass the two, make them admit their feelings, anything. Any hint at romantic advancement was done on birthdays and Christmas, just to tell the other that they were still interested. And even then, it was just a touch to the throat or a peck to the cheek or forehead. Once, Erza had needed a distraction from a tragedy that had befallen her heart, and Gray had turned it down. He knew she didn't need any distraction from her ultimate goal. Everyone just thought that they were just trying to be friendly, but Mira somehow knew that it wasn't the case. Lately, though, Mira hadn't bothered them.

Even though they had their pact, they never spoke of it. No one knew about it. It was a secret, something that couldn't be broken because of gossip or rumors. No one knew; therefore, it was safe. They almost seemed to dance around it.

She'd grown to be a beautiful woman, someone Gray could've only dreamed of having. He was an insanely lucky man. They'd both grown so much since six years ago, and he felt that it had been the best choice for them to wait like they did. They still revolved around each other, but were so much closer than before.

Today was the day. There was a ring on a chain in the box on top of her pile of presents. Today was the day that he'd tell her he loved her. Nothing could stop him.

She sat next to the presents with her long legs crossed, and she wore the same dress she'd worn for their semi-first date. Gray grinned as she reached for the box on top.

"Is this what I think it is?" She asked, a small smile on her lips. She shook the box, and her smile broadened into a grin. "'From Gray. It's been a long time, but today is the day.'" She read from the tag. The guild members exchanged curious, confused looks, and Gray's heart sped up. It was almost time. Her mouth opened in shock at what was in the box. She pinned the ring around her neck, smiling as it nestled into a spot between her breastbones. Everyone gawked at the fine jewelry she now wore, shocked that Gray would spend that much on something like that.

He stepped forward, and felt his hands start to sweat. He had to do this. He'd been waiting too long. She was his, always had been, but now he wanted to tell the whole guild. "I belong to her," he said proudly, kneeling in front of her and bowing his head, "my princess."

The guild fell silent. Suddenly, a chuckle started, and before he really knew what was happening, Erza was laughing loudly. "This is too much," she managed, before falling back in the chair. "This is gold."

He saw a flash of light, and cold metal touched his shoulder. He could feel it through his thin button-up. "Gray Fullbuster," she started, touching the blade to the other shoulder, "you have been accepted as my prince. You may stand," she instructed, and he stood, only to see her smiling happily at her before she took her hands in his, the sword laying forgotten on the floor.

The first person to clap was Mira. She was beaming at them, tears in her eyes. Everyone else started clapping as the two just held hands.

After all, it was all he'd wanted in the first place.

* * *

A/N: I'm also writing this whole scenario from Erza's point of view. I have no clue when it'll be up, but it should be before the month is up. Just watch for the chapter "Knightly."


	19. Breathe

A/N: Another Erza nightmare thing. Sorry I haven't updated. Life hits hard sometimes.

* * *

She couldn't breathe. It felt like her lungs were coated in ice; felt like she'd just swallowed an attack by Natsu; felt like someone was both freezing and burning her lungs. She'd watched the mage go down in slow motion, right in front of her. He had stepped in front of the blade meant for her. It had sliced right through him, severing bone and muscle, and had even slightly sliced her stomach. She wasn't worried about that, though.

"Gray!" she yelled as he fell back against get, no doubt splattering precious fluid on her, but she didn't care. All that matters was that he was bleeding out.

"Your hair... Was always so pretty," he mumbled weakly, tangling bloodstained fingers in the strands that were near his face. He closed his eyes and exhaled his last breath, his heart silencing in his chest. She thumbed at his face, pulled at his hair, anything to try to revive the ice mage. It didn't work. She fell forward and rested her forehead on his stomach, which had ceased to move up and down like it always did when she used it as a pillow.

She'd woken up screaming again. It was the fourth time she'd had that dream this week, every time seeming worse than the last. She tried to prevent it every time, by moving differently or attacking in a different way, but it never worked and he stepped in front of her. She was surprised no one had heard the screams of terror and had come in to check on her.

She laid back down and closed her eyes. Hiding behind her eyelids was a picture of dead Gray still holding her hair. Her eyelids flew open, and she knew she wouldn't sleep.

She hadn't had to sleep with anyone in a long time. She was twenty now, and usually when a girl went to stay with a guy, it wasn't considered innocent. But she just needed familiar arms around her, commonplace breathing, customary muscles and typical warmth. She needed proof that her nightmares were just that: rogue thoughts that her subconscious wanted her to choke on.

She grabbed her favorite pillow and walked to her window, prying it open and climbing down the wall of her dormitory. She knew she'd catch hell in the morning, but right now she just needed him to reassure her that he was alive and well.

She slunk around in the dew-damp grass, trying to be inconspicuous as she stalked over to his house. It wasn't too far from the dorm, but she still had to slink so no one would catch her. It was her job to stop girls who snuck out, but she could be a hypocrite for one night. She fished under his doormat for the spare key, that he'd _allowed_ her to use if she needed it, and opened the front door before slinking into his room.

"The hell you doin', woman?" Gray muttered sleepily, probably going for a menacing sound before turning over in his bed to face her. He blinked a few times at her. "Oh, it's you. Need something?"

"Who did you think I was?" she asked, a small smile gracing her lips. It was nice to know he treated her differently than the water mage, but Erza mentally smacked herself for thinking like that.

"Juvia knew where the spare key was, so I moved it," he shrugged before moving over in the bed, giving her a spot to sit on.

"I couldn't sleep," she said weakly, pulling the covers back and slipping under them, relishing the warmth.

"Couldn't fall asleep, or bad dream? Mira said she'd been hearing you scream but figured you didn't want to talk about it." Gray said, moving so their shoulders touched. She tucked her pillow under her head and took a deep breath.

"You keep sacrificing yourself for me. I don't understand why, though. It scares me that you're so ready to die for me." Erza said, folding her hands on her stomach as she talked.

"Maybe because a world without you is unthinkable? Can you imagine a world without me?" He was so vulnerable in the dark, but then again, so was she. She felt herself move closer to him, and his arms encircled her. His lips pressed to her forehead, and she wrapped her arms tightly around him, knowing that his breathing wouldn't falter for a long time. This was the reassurance she needed.

"You should live on your friends, you know," she said. "It just makes them sad if you die for them."

"I'll keep that in mind, wise Titania," he replied, and she nuzzled into his neck before falling asleep in the comfort of his embrace.


	20. Erza's Birthday

A/N: Just remember, you know you've been in a funk lately if your best friend has to ask if you're drunk just because you're telling jokes. I'm sorry that I haven't updated regularly. I've been busy. But here's a chapter coming from my cellular service. DANKE SCHÖN, AT&T!

* * *

"What?" Gray yelled above the din in the guild. "Erza's birthday is _not_ next week." He would've remembered it. There was no way it's next week. He remembered everything that came to the exquip mage.

"Gray, that's been her birthday since she joined the guild. How could you forget?" Mira sighed, polishing a wine glass. Gray stared at her dumbly while she started on another glass, unsure of why he'd forgotten. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

"Mira, help me plan a surprise party for Erza!" He demanded excitedly, and after a slight concussion and some berating from the barmaid, he was able to "acquire" her help for the endeavor.

Mira already had a plan. She didn't need to have Gray ask her politely, but it didn't hurt to beat some manners into the boy.

* * *

"Gray, I need you to write your name and Erza's name on this little paper." She was planning on buying two presents, but making one from from Gray and one from herself. He nodded absently and did as she said, not really focusing on the task. She sighed, taking the paper from the mage, only to find he'd passed out at the bar.

"What's wrong with Gray?" Erza asked, stepping behind him and resting her arm on his slouched back. She roughly pulled his head to look at her and she shook her head. "How long has he been awake? He looks dead," she said, poking at his face.

"Three days," Mira interlocked her fingers, set her elbows on her half on the bar, and rested her chin on her hands. "Could you take him home? I have some shopping to do."

As the exquip mage carried the ice mage on her back, Mira watched him bury his face into her shoulder unconsciously and she couldn't help but smile at her devilish plan.

* * *

"I can't bake, Mira," Gray said, still donning the cute pink apron. "Why are you having me do this anyway?"

"You're organizing tomorrow's party. Why shouldn't you make the cake_s _too?" She put emphasis on the plural word, hoping he'd get it in his head that they were making more than one. She donned her own apron, insanely amused at how cute Gray actually looked. If she didn't think that he and Erza made the perfect couple already, she might've taken him for herself.

She helped Gray make the cakes, laughing when he spilled flour all over him. He was relatively good at it, quite the perfectionist with the proportions, and she was proud of the icing jobs he did. They made idle chatter as they worked, Gray telling a story about when he and Erza were lost in the forest, and herself telling a story about her, Lisanna and non-buff Elfman.

"You're good company, Gray," she said after a while, pressing a kiss to his cheek. She then stood on her tip toes and whispered in his ear, "You need to get Erza a gift still, right?"

He ripped off the apron and ran out of the guild urgently. "Bye, Mira!"

* * *

"Why is Gray acting so weird?" Erza asked Mira later that night. "He was shopping, had flour stuck on his shirt, and was actually wearing pants. What did you do?"

"Me? Oh, nothing. He wanted to help me bake some things, and he went to restock. Why?" Mira crossed her fingers under the bar, hoping that she hasn't caught him going into a store. She was confident in her lying abilities, but Erza could see through it sometimes.

"He still looks like he hasn't slept in days still. You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" Erza asked, not sure if she was lying. Mira crossed her other fingers. Erza still wasn't sure.

"Of course, Erza! You'd be the first person I'd tell," Mira said, actually speaking the truth. If Gray was upset or having problems, and she noticed it, Mira would tell Erza first. No second thoughts.

"Good. I'm worried about him, you know?"

* * *

"Mira, I'm stuck," Gray said, trying to pry his fingers from the hole in the ceiling where all the streamers met, and a bright red light bulb hung from the ceiling. Red and blue streamers were strung around the guild hall, representing Erza's hair color and Fairy Tail mark.

"No way," she slid the second ladder to where Gray was standing, trying to pull his fingers from the hole. She climbed up to his level and tried to pull his hand from the hole to find it really, truly stuck. "Hold on, I'll get some butter. Stay right there."

"Not like I actually can go anywhere," he muttered, and Mira let loose a chuckle. She dashed into the kitchen, pulled out a stick of butter and ran back into the main hall to help Gray out. "Do you have the alcohol ready?" He asked as she greased his hand. "I'll need some after this."

It was three am, and Mira could tell he was tired. They were almost done, having exchanged all the light bulbs for red and blue ones, hung the streamers, piled the thirty-seven presents in a corner, and put centerpieces on the tables. Everyone in the guild knew about the party, but everyone knew Gray had wanted to decorate and do everything by himself, so it was just him and Mira decorating the place.

Mira chuckled, greasing the edges of the circle and his wrist. "Move your hand up and down. That'll spread the butter and hopefully get your hand out." He did as she instructed, and his hand fell out of the hole.

"I need a beer, and it's not even noon," He said, sitting on top of the ladder. "The things I do for that woman."

"You enjoy it, though, don't you?" She asked, fetching him a mug of the frothy ale.

He shrugged. "She's been in my life since I can remember. It's just second nature."

"But do you enjoy it?" She asked, taking her usual position behind the bar.

"Yes," he said immediately, after sitting at the bar across from her. He crossed his arms on the bar and rested his head on his arms, not touching the beer. "I enjoy every single abusive minute I go through because of that woman because it means that she needs me."

"And you take comfort in that?"

"Of course." He yawned and dug his head back into his arms. "Wake me up when it's officially morning."

* * *

Erza inhaled sharply when she stepped into the guild the next morning.

"Happy Birthday, Erza!" The whole guild yelled at once, Erza letting her eyes wander over the decorations. They were meticulously pinned up, and Erza could tell a lot of time went into decorating the guild with her two favorite colors.

"Dp you like it?" Mira asked, her beaming smile not as bright, and bags under her eyes represented a sleepless night. Erza smiled and hugged the barmaid.

"I love it. Thank you, Mira," she told her fellow guild member.

"Gray actually put the whole thing together. I just helped with the decorations and cake galore." Mira managed, even though her lungs were being crushed.

Erza stared at the barmaid. "No way."

"He's passed out at the bar still. I don't think he's slept since you took him home a couple days ago," Mira sighed. "He really enjoyed setting up the party, though."

Erza smiled. "Thank you, Mira," she said again, before heading back to the bar and rubbing Gray's back. "You're such an idiot," she whispered in his ear.

"Erza, open my present!"

"No, open mine!"

"Mine's the best!"

Gray was now conscious and everyone was sitting around Erza, the pile of presents drug out in the middle of the guild hall. Erza was still surprised that so many people were willing to buy her presents.

"It's because you're twenty now," Gray said. "No longer an immature teenager."

"I was never immature," she said seriously, but a smile still graced her face. It hadn't left since that morning. Some snickers echoed through the crowd at the painfully obvious joke.

She grabbed the one from the top and unwrapped it carefully, knowing it was from Gray from the tag.

A silver bracelet with red and blue gemstones embedded in the links sparkled at her from the box. Most of the girls "ooh"ed at the jewelry, while the guys slapped Gray on the back for "finally growing a pair."

"Why won't Gray-sama buy Juvia cute jewelry?" Juvia wailed, and Lucy parted her back, trying to convince the water mage that Lyon would get her a bracelet like that if she asked.

"It's great, Gray, thank you." He took it out of the box and pinned it around her wrist, both of their faces flushing when he touched her skin.

"Any time, Titania."

* * *

"Look at what I have!" Natsu slurred, holding up a neon-green piece of lined cloth. "Hahaha, Erza, come get it!"

"Die, you little brat!" Erza yelled, chasing after Natsu, and Gray watched amusedly. He sipped at his room temperature beer (the same one from earlier that morning) and peace, or what was considered peace at the guild, settled over him.

"You aren't gonna stop him?" Mira asked from behind him. "He's running around with Erza's bra."

"She wasn't wearing it, so it's not that bad. And she'll beat the crap out of him by herself. I really don't need to intervene." Gray shrugged. "Now, if he somehow manages to-"

Gray blinked as Natsu held up a second bra, and Erza looked decidedly pissed. _Now_ it was time to get involved. "You're dead, Flame Brain!"

"Come get me, Droopy-eyes!" Natsu laughed, taking off and out of the guild. Gray was pissed too (how come _Natsu_ got to see the gold?) and had a reputation to uphold.

"I will, you asshat!" Gray yelled back, taking off after Natsu. "Victory will be mine!"

* * *

Mira couldn't help but find the party a success. One wall had a nice ten-foot-diameter hole in it, which was impressive, considering the circumstances. Natsu got off with only one week of slave labor for Gray and Erza, who seemed a lot closer now. They spend nearly every waking moment together or doing something for the other, which a lot of guild members considered "dating," even Mira herself.

And once again, all was well in the guild of the fairies. No one could deny the positive atmosphere that surrounded everyone, which was usually the effect of a good party.

Mira smiled, hoping that the two lovebirds would finally admit that they liked each other as "more than friends."


	21. Christmas Lights

A/N: Merry Christmas guys (or Christmas Eve, because I know some of the world is ahead of me and some isn't and ugh timezones)! I'm glad you guys have all stuck by this story since it started, what, almost a month ago? Here's Christmas Lights, inspired by Coldplay's song. :3

* * *

Erza always loved the holidays. The lights that decked the guild hall cast a certain mood over the members of Fairy Tail. No one fought over trivial things, everyone was happy, and no one left on missions. Sometimes, even Gildarts would come back.

It had been three years since everyone who'd been on Tenrou Island came back, and since then, Gray and Natsu had both been granted S-Class status. About three weeks ago, Gray had taken a mission, promising to be back before Christmas. He still had to make that promise, though, and the biggest holiday was in a week.

"Hey, Erza!" Macao hollered from the bar. "You gone shopping yet?"

Erza shook her head. "I'm still waiting." She refused to shop for everyone without Gray; it had been their tradition since they were little kids. Everyone in the guild knew that she was put off by him not being there, so they all tried their best to make her feel better. Mira had had her make cinnamon rolls for everyone earlier that morning and Natsu had her hang lights on Lucy's house.

"Erza! Alzack and I need to go shopping; would you mind watching Asuka?" Bisca asked from across the guild. Erza smiled as the young girl, now nine years old, ran toward her. Erza loved the little girl, as she was strong and just as brave as her mother.

"I'll take her through town," Erza agreed, waving off the Connell's. "Have you bought anything for your parents yet?" She asked the girl clinging to her legs.

"Not yet," Asuka looked at Erza with her wide, violet eyes. "Will you help me?"

"Of course," Erza agreed. "When was the last time your mom got new boots?"

"Um," Asuka put a finger to her chin and puckered her lips in thought. "Daddy's been meaning to get her some, but he hasn't yet. They look really really old. Should we put an order in?"

"That sounds like a good idea, Asuka." Erza ruffled the young girl's hair, holding out her hand for her to take. Asuka took it, and they walked out of the guild together.

* * *

Gray really was cutting it close for the holidays. He had one week to buy gifts for everyone, and Erza would be pissed that he hasn't made it back yet. He was in Magnolia, at least, so he could get some gifts before he went back to the guild.

He scanned the streets, hoping that he could catch a hint of scarlet hair. There were a few times that he wished he'd taken Titania along with him, after being pummeled into the dirt repeatedly by a monster of huge proportions. He smiled when he caught Erza with Alzack's daughter in front of the cobbler's shop. Erza was grinning largely at the younger girl, crouched down and ruffling her hair. Gray smiled despite himself; it was nice to see her showing affection to the youngest member of the guild. She wasn't overly affectionate with anyone, but she was still a girl.

"We still need to get your dad a present," Gray overheard Erza say. Apparently the exquip mage had taken the young girl shopping. "What should we get?"

"Daddy likes cowboy hats... But he ripped his favorite cloak!" Asuka said loudly. "Let's go!" The young girl grabbed Erza's wrist and dragged her off in the direction of the tailor's shop.

Gray noted that Erza looked extremely content helping the girl buy presents for her parents. A motherly protectiveness seemed to radiate off her aura, and Gray couldn't help but wonder if she'd settle down soon. She was still young, yes, but she wouldn't stay that way forever. He couldn't help but wonder if he could catch her before someone else did.

He walked back to the guild, wanting to surprise her by being there when she returned. Mira waved him over as soon as he stepped through the front door, a grin smothering her face. "You're back!"

"About damn time! Someone needed to cheer that girl up," Macao declared, slamming his empty beer mug on the bar. "She's been so mopey recently! She hasn't even gone shopping, saying that she was waiting for you to get your ass back here!"

Mira slid another beer down to the old guild leader. Gray looked at her questioningly, asking her if that was really the case. Mira nodded, sliding the ice mage a cold glass of juice. "She's been really down. She was pretty sure you were breaking tradition." Mira said quietly, not wanting Macao to interject.

"She knows I'd never do it on purpose," Gray sighed. "She looked so happy with Asuka."

"Motherly, huh?" Mira smirked knowingly. Gray felt his cheeks flush. He cursed himself for letting it show so obviously on his face. "Better catch her soon, Gray. She's not gonna wait much longer."

"You make it sound so easy," he sighed again. "How should I go ab-"

"Iced-up Underwear Prince!" an angry voice yelled through the guild. Gray frowned when Mira greeted Natsu. "You better have a good reason for taking off right before Christmas!"

"I needed money, Flame-brain!" Gray growled back. Natsu looked angrier than usual, though, and Gray wasn't sure why. He really needed to watch his step.

"You could've taken Erza with you! She's been moping around the guild the past week, not doing much of anything!" Natsu spat, his glare becoming even angrier, leaning closer into the ice mage's face.

"How's that my fault?" Gray asked, ramming his forehead against Natsu's. "She could go on a mission if she wanted to!"

Natsu grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer, the tone of his voice deadly and low. "She's been sad because you left and she was afraid you wouldn't keep your promise. Don't make promises you might not be able to keep." His tone lightened as he continued. "I recommend taking her shopping. Girls usually forgive guys that way. I should know."

Gray wasn't sure if he should laugh or be terrified. "Do you really make Luce mad that often?" Gray decided to keep to the jovial comments.

"You don't know the half of it." Natsu smirked at Gray, and they bumped fists. "Nice to have you back, Underwear Prince."

"Nice to be back, Flame Brain." Gray waved at Lucy, who grabbed the fire dragon by his scarf and dragged him back into the snowy streets. Natsu tried flailing, but didn't get very far and just huffed ay Gray.

Gray focused on the front door of the guild, waiting for Asuka to drag Erza back in from the dark skies outside. He waited for a while, greeting various people who welcomed him home.

Erza came back to the guild at about ten, carrying a sleeping Asuka back into the guild, a smile playing on her lips as she watched the girl sleep. "Anyone know where Bisca and Alzack live?"

Most of the guild shrugged in response. Erza sighed and sat in a booth, still holding the girl. "I can have her sleep in my dorm, Erza-san," Wendy offered.

Mira stepped out from behind the bar and took Asuka from Erza. "I'll take her home. You have some catching up to do, Erza," the barmaid pointed back at Gray, who was trying to hide. Erza would certainly beat him up.

Erza sighed and climbed out of the booth, glaring at Gray for a moment before sitting next to him at the bar. "You really do have a way of making a girl worry." She said, taking the cup of grape juice from his hand and sipping at it.

"Sorry. I told you I'd make it back in time," he said, taking the cup back from Erza before drinking from it again.

"I still need to go shopping for everyone," she poked a finger at his chest, "and I won't break tradition."

"Are any of the stores still open?" He asked. "Most people are asleep right now."

"We can find out -" she started, about to leave again, but Gray grabbed her wrist and slid out of his seat. He pulled her into a tight hug, mentally smirking as he rested his chin on the top of her head. He could finally do that.

"I'm sorry for not inviting you to come with me," he whispered. "Would you like to out to eat sometime?"

"Is that a date offer?" she asked, basking in his warmth and being hugged. She wasn't one for much physical affection, but it felt nice.

"Possibly. Do you accept?" He replied snarkily, ignoring the snickers from the other guild members witnessing them.

"Of course."

* * *

"You knew he was coming in today, didn't you?" Mira asked Bisca. "That's why you sent Erza out with Asuka. He'd see her, wish that it was Erza and their child, and then they'd end up being together."

"You think too hard about getting them together. I just needed a babysitter," Bisca shrugged.


	22. No Bite

A/N: Can it hit 100 reviews by 2013? Hmm? Think we can do it?

I have the ending planned for this. I'm thinking I'll end it with 33 chapters (preppin' for lax, baby!) and the last chapter will be something long, just like Holding Hands was. This is just come cute intermission fluff. I'm currently working on 3 actual one-shots at least ten times this length, hopefully. I can't see how long my docs are on Microsoft Office Mobile, so I'm hoping that they hit 4-5k. Everyone who's reviewed deserves the akjghsjxan-worthy length.

* * *

Gray knew she wouldn't really kill him. She'd just partially maim him, let Gajeel drink his blood for the iron, and leave him for dead in the forest. The woman was all bark and no bite in Gray's experience with her.

And if someone said he was a masochist for everything he did to make her mad, he'd agree with no hesitation. It was the only way to keep her attention on him until she decided she wasn't mad about it anymore.

Currently, Gray is running for his limbs from the furious Titania. "What do you mean, _you and Natsu stole my regular outfit?!" _She screeched, with Gray only three feet out of her reach. "What did you think you were accomplishing by doing that? And how the hell did you get into my storage space?"

Gray wasn't sure what she was accomplishing by running outside dressed in her swimsuit - _why didn't we take that too? - _as she chased him, but he was glad he'd asked Natsu to help him. Erza had nice skin, and the more of it her saw, the better. Now that he thought about it, how _did_ they break into her magic space? "Cuz we got bored," was his smart reply as he picked up the pace, running through town and avoiding the pedestrians. Now, how to lose her...

He tripped over a curb, falling face-first into the concrete of the road. Erza couldn't stop in time, and he was struggling for breath as she laid on his back. She took advantage of the situation, a smirk spreading over her lightly-tanned skin. "Hmm. Should I rip your arm off, or castrate you? Maybe both," she grinned. "Or, maybe I should make you wear thirty layers of clothing in the middle of summer. Yeah, that sounds like a good punishment."

"Or, you could let me go free." He tried to use a persuading voice, but even to him it sounded pleading. "I won't do it again."

She smiled at him. "Fine. Just this once, though."

She really was all bark and no bite with him. Natsu, on the other hand... "Natsu, you better run!" She yelled, breaking into a sprint. He knew she really would try to kill him.


	23. Spiders

A/N: I have seven drabbles left. Three one-shots remain. Insufferable is coming to an end. Or, at least, a temporary one. Maybe I'll do some sort of sequel with Grayza babies or something. Any suggestions as to what should slip in here before I finish? (And no, "SAR-CHAN DON'T END INSUFFERABLE" doesn't count as a suggestion. It's more like a beg, which I don't fall for. Ever.) And this chapter amuses me to no end. We all know who really wears the pants in this relationship, even if she only wears a skirt.

* * *

Gray couldn't help it. He let out a girlish squeal before hiding under the table.

"That spider's a man!" Elfman yelled, pointing to where Gray had seen the giant, horrifying eight-legged monster. He'd had bad experiences with spiders when he was with Lyon and Ur, and to this day they terrified the snot out of him.

"Aww, is baby Gray afraid of a little bab- Holy crap, that is a huge spider." Erza said, squirming into the booth above Gray, and he had to stop a nosebleed when he caught sight of her panties. He was glad no one could see him, but he imagined Mira was behind the bar, cackling like the monster she really was. "Ooh, that looks like a goliath."

"So, you enjoyed that spider book, Erza?" Levy asked from behind Titania, and Erza threw a fist back, the blue-haired mage flying backwards to hit a pole, only to begin bleeding from her scalp.

"'Ey, Titania, don't go beating up your friends," Gajeel snorted, helping Levy up and into the infirmary to wrap her head.

"Anyway, I don't know what it's doing here, but we need to let it outside," Erza instructed. "Elfman, go open the door. Here, spider spider spider," Erza beckoned to the spider, setting her hand flat on the table near the spider. Gray had wormed his way out from under the table to watch as the spider, larger than Erza's dainty hands, step onto her skin. Whispers filled the guild hall as Erza moved slowly to the door, as to not startle the giant spider, and set her hand on the ground to release it into the outside world.

Cheers of approval rose up through the guild, and Gray coughed, realizing that he'd squealed when he saw the monstrosity. Erza ruffled his hair, sitting next to him in the booth. "That was a cute squeal, Gray," she said with a laugh.


	24. First Aid

A/N: Oh, ew. This thing is short and not something I'm über-proud of. But I have to say OMG DEZ GOOD JOB YOU WERE THE 100TH REVIEWER :) And... My story got 100 reviews in one month. I'm just... Shocked, that so many people love my writing enough to review it. Thanks a ton, guys.

* * *

"Wow, we got banged up bad," Gray said, looking over himself before looking over Erza. They'd been battered worse, but it was up there in one of the top ten worst fights they'd battled.

"It could've been worse," Erza shrugged. "I'll fix you up if you treat me," she offered, limping to the somehow-untouched bag just out of the clearing. Inside was a mage's usual medical kit. She liked fixing wounds, as it was relaxing and she was helping people. After somehow managing to crawl over to were Gray lay on the ground. "Sit up." He obliged, but she could tell he was in pain. She sat behind him, allowing him to rest his head against her shoulder. She picked the bits of shrapnel from his shoulders and chest with a pair of tweezers, letting her finger lazily drift over his chest, using the excuse of first aid to touch his skin freely. "This'll sting," she warned, pulling the large bottle of rubbing alcohol from the bag. She poured it over his chest, neatness be damned. She unrolled a bit of gauze and started wrapping it around the reopened wounds, again letting her fingers trail along his torso. She longed to touch that skin, as she'd grown up watching his outer organ grow scars and shape into even more defined muscles. She fixed up his legs, and she noticed he looked a lot less pained than when she'd started. "Your turn," she smiled.

He stared awkwardly at Erza and she wrestled with what remained of her blouse. He hated when she acted all "sexually indifferent" because it meant that he had to keep himself focused on anything other than her bra, which was now bloodstained in little sections. He started the same way she had, picking little pieces of metal and glass from her torso and neck, then unceremoniously dumping rubbing alcohol all over her body. He had to say he was an expert at wrapping bandages, because he'd had to do it for himself when he was younger. Only recently had Erza started helping him. He tied off her torso before moving on to her legs, which were in rough shape. He repeated the process on her legs, trying to keep himself from just tenderly grazing the skin that wasn't bleeding or torn off. "At least we're alive," he said somberly, taking in their heavily-bandaged bodies.

"Always be thankful for that." Erza shot a small smile at him before getting to her feet and offering him a hand. After taking his hand, she slung his arm over her shoulders and they leaned on each other to walk to the hotel they were staying in. Because, after all, didn't near-death bring lovers together?


	25. Best Man

A/N: Ta-da! This one's cute and gah and perfect and I live them when they're cute like this. Five one-shots left after this!

* * *

"You still aren't ready?" Erza asks, barging into the bathroom, where Gray is glaring at his reflection. "What are you doing?"

"I'm thinking." Gray states, still scowling. Erza sighs and pulls him in front of her, pulling at his tie before tying it up for him. "Don't tie my tie!"

"You're obviously not going to do it!" she retorts, pulling it tight against his neck. "Now, this is an important event. I will personally kill you if you ruin Natsu and Lucy's wedding, by fighting with him or stripping. As much as everyone will love your chest, it's not your event. Understood?" She pulls him down so she can look him straight in the eyes.

"You look nice," Gray says, completely ignoring what she tells him. "Why don't you dress up more?"

"Because we don't go out to nice places enough! Now put your jacket on!" She throws the pinstriped garment at him, smiling as he pulls it on. She smirks, an idea popping into her mind. She yanks his tie into place before pulling him down and pressing her lips against his. He stumbles a bit, shocked at the action, but kisses her back, tangling his fingers in her glossy scarlet hair, which is tied at the top of her head messily. Her hands were at his waist, holding him tightly, until he starts furthering the kiss. She pulls away smoothly, a look of apology on her face. "We have to go, Best Man," she smirks, dragging him after her.


	26. Breaking and Entering

A/N: Bwahahaha this one was fun to write. Erza is scary, isn't she?

* * *

"Are you sure we should be doing this, Gray? Remember the last time we broke into Erza's dorm?" Natsu asked nervously, watching Gray jiggle the lock on the window into Erza's main dorm.

"Relax. She'll never know it was us," Gray smirked, opening the window and slipping into the bedroom. He spotted the door to her room and tiptoed over to it, smiling as he pushed it open. The door didn't squeak to his pleasure, and he eyed the dresser which contained the goodies. Natsu had slunk in behind him, and Gray couldn't help but chuckle happily as he pulled open the top drawer. "Jackpot!" Gray whispered, looking through all of Erza's neatly aligned undergarments. Her bras were in piles by design, either striped or plain, and under those the panties were arranged the same way. Gray was impressed that Erza was this organized with her underwear.

"May I help you?" a cold voice said from behind Gray, a warm hand resting on his shoulder.

"Shit," he swore, turning around to face Erza. "Hi there." He tried to be peppy, but when he saw the glare emanating from Erza he felt himself visibly shrink.

"Get your asses out of my dorm. I will deal with you tomorrow." She hissed. "And if you tell anyone about my drawer, I will cut off your head and mount it over my fireplace." He envisioned it: his head mounted onto a piece of wood as she sipped at a cup of tea. Totally plausible. Gray swallowed hard and ran out, nearly jumping out of the window to save his head.

As they ran away from Fairy Hills, Natsu whistled. "We got off easy, man."


	27. Another Sad Story

A/N: Anyone on Tumblr should recognize this fic :) sorry it's so meh; I'm working on a monsterous one-shot that will leave most of you in tears and feels, so I hope it makes up for the lack of awesomeness in this. GAH KNIGHTLY ISN'T EVEN HALF DONE I'M SO SORRY. PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

* * *

The world started to black out around her as she fell to the ground. She tried fighting the black pit because, damn it, she wasn't going to let this monstrosity beat her, but all her fighting did was drop her into the unconsciousness faster. The last thing she saw was an ice spear flying over her head as a masculine voice yelled, "Oh, hell no!"

Everyone in the guild was prepared to die for their comrades. No one ever expected it to happen, because they had always proven stronger than their opponents, and someone usually jumped in to save the day. But, it had been different this time. No one had expected the cyclops they were fighting to be this strong, so they'd downplayed the situation, saying it'd be a piece of cake.

The monster's endurance and overall defensive capabilities towered over Team Natsu's brute attack force. Natsu and Lucy had been rendered unconscious by a swift blow they'd both taken head-long. Wendy had passed out trying to heal them. The three of them still lay about a hundred feet from where Erza sat.

After she had passed out, she assumed that Gray had taken on the cyclops, as it had been beheaded and spasmed like a dead fish every few minutes. But the most shocking thing was that the ice-make mage was on the dusty ground, his neck bent at a twisted and impossible angle.

She hunted for a pulse, for any sign of life. She squeezed his hand, pinched his cheeks, pulled at his hair. "Come on, Gray," she pleaded, "wake up." She didn't want to acknowledge the state of her dear teammate, but it couldn't be avoided. Gray Fullbuster was dead, and her conclusion was that it had happened from an unconscious fall from the monster's shoulders. She stared at his chest, how the Fairy Tail emblem stayed in place, not rising and falling like it did when he was bent over, panting from exhaustion after a long battle.

She didn't want to accept that he was dead. He was the one who'd talked her into actually being a part of the guild, he'd accompanied her on her first mission, and he'd fought alongside her so many times, it probably outnumbered the amount of armors she had back in her rooms at Fairy Hills. She tried yelling, pulling at his dark blue hair, shaking his shoulders. She blinked back tears, realizing it wouldn't help to beat a dead horse, literally. She still clutched his hand, bringing it to her chest as she sobbed, giving into the pain of her titanium heart breaking under the loss of her closest friend.

She wasn't sure how long she laid with her ear over his stilled heart, but the tears never stopped. The sun had set and stars freckled the deep blue of the midnight sky. Suddenly, a strong set of hands picked her up and threw her over a broad shoulder. "Time to go home, Titania," a familiar voice grunted, and softly began walking away from Gray's deathly cold body.

"No!" She yelled, kicking and flailing, "Elfman, put me down!" she tried to worm out of his grasp, but he wouldn't let her down. "You can't let me leave Gray! He needs me!" Elfman refused to comply, still walking away as Erza sobbed, reaching out for the body of her comrade. "I let him die! I can't just leave him!"

"We're coming back for him in the morning, Erza," Elfman said softly. "You need to sleep." She gave up on staying by Gray, but sobbed loudly, wishing she could've told Gray that she appreciated everything he'd done for her, and how much she really loved him.

The sun was low in the sky when Natsu had woken Lucy gently and carried her into Magnolia, blatantly ignoring the sobbing sounds from further into the clearing. She buried her face into his shoulder as they walked, trying to muffle the sound of her tears. "Dammit, Gray," he hissed after some time of walking in silence. Lucy frowned as drops plopped onto her bare, scratched arms. "I can't believe you'd have to guts to go and make these girls cry," he said thickly, and Lucy placed her damp arms as the result of Natsu's tears. "You can't do anything right, you stupid Underwear Prince."

She pretended to be oblivious to the dragon slayer's sniffles, but it caused her to cry, too. She didn't even have enough energy to yell at Natsu for, once again, breaking down her front door to enter her house. He dragged her up the stairs and plopped her on her bed. He faced her and smiled, which challenged his grime- and tear-streaked face. "Get some sleep, Luce. Tomorrow will be better."

At this declaration, Lucy sobbed, because it was just like Natsu to put on a brave face even though he was hurting, too. He sat next to her and she flung her arms around her, crying loudly into his shoulder. He gently hugged her back, rubbing her back. "Please don't cry. I hate it when you cry."

"You try so hard to be happy, Natsu," she managed to say clearly. "It's okay to cry for someone you love."

They laid in bed together, holding one another until the sobbed their way into dreamless slumber.


	28. Hysterics

A/N: To Guest: The reason why I end up writing more tragedies for Grayza than happy ones is because I don't think their relationship would be all happy fluff and joy rides on horses into the sunset. Grayza will always be tragic to me, because they came to know each other under tragic circumstances, bonded over their tragic past, and lived together through their tragic lives. It's not that I want them to suffer - they just end up doing so.

So, here's another (crap) chapter in retaliation of the Gruvia in episode 163! I hope you at least think it isn't totally wasted words. Because let's face it, Gray could totally end up doing this.

* * *

He was holding her, but something happened and he pressed a knife to her neck. She screamed as he slid the knife across her jugular, and he could feel himself laughing, her eyes pleading why as they dimmed into lifeless nothing. He didn't understand what was happening, and the world faded before his vision refocused and again, she was in his grip, but he was pressing a gun to her head. Why was he hurting her? He would never do this in real life. He owed her too much to try and kill her. Besides, she could kill him better than he could kill her. "I love you," he felt himself whisper, before he pulled the trigger. She died with a smile on her face. The scene faded again, and this time she was tied to a wooden pole with wood all below her. He took a match and lit it, throwing it on the wood below her. The wooden pole almost went up immediately, and he felt himself laugh loudly, clutching his stomach. He couldn't fight it, couldn't control his urge to kill her. He wanted to scream, fall to his knees as the smell of charring flesh filled his nostrils. He was killing his best friend, the girl he loved so deeply, and he couldn't stop himself! How messed up was he?

"Gray, you idiot, what are you doing? Get out here and fight!" he heard the burning corpse yell, and he blinked rapidly, the image fading and he was on a battlefield, dead bodies everywhere. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I... I think I got hit with something," Gray said, trying to blink the visions from his eyes. "Cover me for thirty seconds."

She grunted irritatedly, but covered his back as he took deep breaths, trying to relax enough to fight. _I did not kill Erza. I will protect her with my life. _

Because that was what men who loved a girl did.


	29. Neko

I have to be the lamest person on the planet. I might've just spent all afternoon yesterday plus most of today writing Grayza drabbles? I have replenished my supply, and currently have twelve in reserve! Yaaaay! And the best thing?** Not all of them are angst! Yay!** So, enjoy Neko! :D

* * *

Gray sat next to Erza on the train, watching Lucy stroke Natsu's wild hair as his face started gaining a green tinge. "Just throw his head out the window, Lucy." He suggested, earning glares from both women. Erza held up her hand to allow Lucy to back off. Erza knew how to deal with the

"You two aren't fighting again, are you?" Erza asked, giving Gray an excuse to avoid her wrath. She took a sharp breath when she noticed something dark blue and furry growing from his head. She reached out and touched them. "Gray, why do you have ears?"

"Because, biologically, everyone has them? Erza, I thought we already went over the whole anatomy-thing with Master a while ago." Gray said with a sarcastic tone. She frowned and reached out again, only to scratch behind the ear. He butted against her hand, his eyes closing. She continued scratching, only to receive a groan from the ice mage. She she removed her hand, he scooted closer to her, rubbing his cheek against her shoulder.

"Wasn't he hit with some weird magic?" Lucy asked. "Oh, man, Natsu's going to have a field day with this."

Erza frowned. "So, he has the mentality of a cat? Well, that makes things interesting." She scratched behind his ears again, and suddenly, with a poof, a dark-blue furred cat with dark eyes stared at Erza.

"Why am I all small now? Did someone shrink me?" Gray, now in cat-form, asked. Erza laid her hand on his head, a giggle erupting from her mouth, and stroked his head. "A-haa, Erza, don't do that," he stammered, but still butted against her now-stopped hand.

Erza chuckled and picked him up. "You're such a cute cat. I might just keep you." She rubbed her cheek against his, and a light blush dusted his cat-cheeks.

"I'm a cat? No wonder I feel so small. But it's weird; I still feel like a person. Like," he touched a paw to her face, "that feels like my hand is touching your cheek. The only difference is that everything is black and white."

"Hopefully this wears off soon. I'll take you back to my place so you don't go hurting yourself at your place." She set him on her lap and stroked his head again, grinning when he started purring. She fell asleep to the rocking of the train and the vibrations of Gray's chest.

* * *

"Haha, Gray's a cat! He can't fight me anymore! I win!" Natsu yelled at they walked back to the guild from the train station. Gray hissed at him from over Erza's shoulder. She had a soft spot for cats, and didn't want her 'poor, poor kitty' to walk all the way back to the guild. He felt incredibly pampered.

"Natsu, stop it," Lucy chastised, slapping the back of her hand over his chest. "Or I'll let Erza beat you up."

"Okay, okay," Natsu grumbled. Gray smirked at him, cuddling against Erza's soft neck. Every time she stroked his head, it made him moan and it felt weird to Gray, because it made his gut ache and want her even more than he did beforehand. It also might've turned him on a bit, he admitted to himself with much shame. "But does that mean he'll lick himself?" Natsu asked, grinning wickedly.

"Natsu, really!" Lucy punched his shoulder and by the looks of it incredibly hard, as Natsu winced. Served the Firelog right for being irritating.

Erza plucked him off her shoulder and cradled him like a baby. "Aww, is Natsu picking at my darling little cat? You poor thing," she scratched under his neck, and he started purring again, much to his horror. Purring was almost like the human equivalent of moaning in pleasure if someone touched a sensitive spot of your body, Gray had picked up. He enjoyed it, though, because this was Erza and not some creepy old lady, so he didn't mind.

"Erza, it's Gray, not an actual cat. You don't have to dote on him so much," Lucy said, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead. Erza shrugged, still scratching under his chin and cuddling him close. He still felt human, so this was odd. And she knew he did; was she hinting at something?

"Team Natsu's home!" someone yelled, and everyone in the guild started yelling and congratulating them on a job well done.

"Where's Gray-sama?" Juvia asked, tears forming in her eyes. "Juvia has important news for him!" Gray (metaphorically, of course) crossed his fingers that it was something to do with her accepting Lyon and leaving him alone. He liked the attention, but after a year it had gotten annoying.

Erza kept her face expressionless and held him out to Juvia. The water mage looked at Erza with a confused expression, until she looked at his eyes. "Gray-sama? How did you become a _neko_?" She took him from Erza.

"I have no idea," he shrugged. Juvia rubbed her face against his (_why do women insist upon doing this to me? I'm just a cat) _and Gray wished she'd just tell him what the news was. "What were you going to say?"

"Oh! Juvia accepted a date with Lyon-sama! He is taking Juvia to a fancy restaurant tomorrow evening!" She kissed his nose and gave him back to Erza. "Well, Juvia must go shopping! She will see her guildmates later!"

Gray let out a breath. "About time that ice-bastard made a move on her."

Erza raised an eyebrow at him. "By calling Lyon an ice-bastard, you're mocking yourself, considering that you two are incredibly similar." Gray huffed and her and turned his head away from her.

"Cat! Natsu, you're replacing me?!" Happy yelled, walking over from the Exceed corner. "How could you?!"

"No, that's just Gray. I'd never replace you, Happy!" Natsu said tearfully. The Exceed buried his head into Natsu's shoulder, sobbing loudly. Gray sighed.

"What a touching reunion. A boy reuniting with his cat!" Erza said, wiping a tear from her eye. Gray just gaped at her, resisting the urge to slam his head into her shoulder.

Lucy came back with Levy, who took him from Erza. She stroked his head, causing him to purr, and suddenly he felt like he was cheating on Erza. He shook his head. He was really pathetic. "Well, he is a real cat, not an Exceed. And I haven't encountered any spells about people turning into cats. I can do some research tonight. Will you be okay like this for a little bit, Gray?" She handed him back to his unofficial guardian, who cradled him against her chest.

"I don't mind that much," he said. _Erza gets to touch me and I can make all the groaning noises I want because I'm just purring, I get to stay with her, and she treats me nicer than usual. I'm perfectly fine like this._

"I'm so sorry I can't help now!" Levy sighed. "I'll go start searching. See you later!" She took off toward the library, with Gajeel trailing behind her, yelling "Oi, Bookworm!"

"You're quite popular with the ladies, aren't you?" She scratched his head again. "We should head home," she suggested, her jaw stretching for a yawn.

"Sounds good," he yawned too.

She let him walk on the ground and follow her to her dorm at Fairy Hills. "I need to take a shower. Will you be okay out here by yourself?"

"You worry too much. I'll be fine." He leaped up onto her bed and curled up on her pillow. He fell asleep listening to the pitter-patter of the shower water and smelling his love's scent on the pillow he laid on.

* * *

She picked him up off her pillow and load him on her stomach after she positioned herself comfortably on her bed. "Now that you're a cat, I have an excuse to dote on you," she whispered, scratching at his ears. "No one will think I like you more than I should if you're a cat. Everyone loves cats."

She felt his purrs against her stomach. He was such an adorable cat, and all she really wanted was his warmth. She enjoyed cradling him to her body and making him mew and purr. At least she got some reaction from him as a cat. As a human, he never even noticed if she flirted with him. She sighed and stroked his head. "Why can't you be this loveable as a human?"

He yawned and blinked at her. "I am. I just feel really awkward acknowledging that you like me."

She felt her face flush. "You heard that?" She scratched his ears, a small smile spreading on her face as he started purring again.

"I'm a cat. I have good hearing." He rubbed his head against her hand. "And a cat's purr is a lot like a moan."

She smirked. "You like being a cat, don't you?" He nodded, crawling forward so his head was nestled under her chin. She scratched at the side of his neck.

"I can't do this if I'm a human," he said sadly. "And you really do enjoy making me purr."

"Of course, because isn't it like making you moan?" She liked that they were so open in the dark of her room. "You're an adorable cat."

"Do you think I'll turn back into a regular person eventually?" he asked, and she could hear the worry in his voice, even if he tried to hide it. "I don't mind being a cat, but I'd rather not die without getting laid first. By a _human girl_," he added for emphasis.

Erza giggled. "You'll become a human. I promise. Go back to sleep, stupid tomcat."

"Well, someone's moody," Gray huffed before prodding onto Erza's stomach and flopping there. She smiled at how content he looked. "Night, Titania."

* * *

Gray opened his eyes to find color. _Am I back to normal? _He asked himself, moving his arms to see that they weren't furry. _Yes!_ He took in his surroundings to notice that something was snaked around him, something wet pressed against his chest.

When he noticed the red hair, he almost passed out. He was sleeping in the same bed as Erza. And she was drooling on his chest, clutching him tightly. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, causing her to move even closer to him, like she was trying to make them one being.

"Hey, Erza, wake up," he said, poking her cheek. Her eyes flew open, and a small shriek emitted from her mouth.

"You're a person now! Oh, too bad, I was looking forward to parading you around town all day, bragging about my beautiful cat." She let out a falsely sad sigh, which only caused him to giggle. "Hmm, I wonder." Gray froze, because those were scary words from the exquip mage's mouth, and he felt his vocal cords release a sound of pleasure at her scratching behind his ears. "You still have cat instincts. That could be used to my advantage," she grinned, her eyes sparkling with evil intentions. Gray groaned, knowing that this would be the beginning of many awkward situations.


	30. Until the End

A/N: Oh hai there. Um, so this is kinda like "Nightmares" but different? And just so you know, I have eighteen drabbles that need to last until March. So, updates aren't going to be very often (maybe once a week after this). I'm so sorry guys. Homework and sports (insert gasp here) take priority.

* * *

She heard her front door creak open, and tensed up under the covers. No one came to her apartment in the middle of the night, unless it was a dire emergency. She heard the shuffle of feet and tried to force her sped up breathing to return to its slumberous state. A body sat on the edge of her bed, slid under the covers, and pulled her body against theirs. The bare, muscular chest her face was pressed against indicated that this body was Gray's. She mumbled a bit, trying to make him realize that he'd just woken her up. He ignored her muffled protests and held her tight, rubbing her back and stroking her hair.

"Just a dream, it was only a dream," he muttered to himself, and she felt a spot on her head begin to dampen. She tilted her head up and saw that Gray was silently crying, most likely trying to reassure himself that she was real. She'd done the same thing to him many times before, and just confirmation that the other person was still alive wasn't enough. You had to know that they still smelled the same, still had that bright smile or gentle fingers.

"I'm here, Gray," she whispered, not wanting him to outright sob in her room. She maneuvered her arms from being pressed against his chest and snaked her fingers into his abnormally spiky hair, twirling the strands and scratching at his scalp. His hair was soft and had some rough ends, and she decided she'd give him a haircut tomorrow. His pressed his lips to her neck, murmuring his mantra of 'it was just a dream' over and over. His breath was warm and she appreciated it against the cool temperature of her room.

"Please don't ever try to die for me," he told her after a few minutes of just holding her, making sure that she was real. She nodded, and he buried his head in her shoulder, spreading his tears on the side of her neck. She still played with his hair, enjoying the fact that she was able to make him feel better. "Fight with me until the end."

"Okay," she replied, pressing her lips to his shoulder. "Until the end."


	31. Choke

A/N: I'm suffering from update-withdrawal. This was rewritten about seventy-million times. I started with Jellal (I can't trust him, not after the Tower of Heaven. You can't say you love someone and then sacrifice them) but changed to Ivan, mainly because I really had to stretch my imagination for the Jellal one. But gah angst I'm sorry in advance.

* * *

She absolutely hated hostage situations.

She'd only been in a few, but each time was worse than the last. This time had to be the worst.

"What do you want?" She demanded of the ex-Fairy Tail member, ignoring how her legs were turning to jelly. No weakness was allowed. Weakness was sure to get him killed. "Money? Control? Members?" She could give him the first and last one, but she absolutely could not allow Master's son to have the guild under him. There was no way she could do that. Not after her Grand Magic Games and what had happened there.

"Secrets. I imagine that wrinkly old bastard has told you everything there is to know," Ivan Dreyar scoffed, tightening his grip on Gray, his face paling. She rolled her eyes outwardly at Ivan, but her heart started rushing its usually steady beat. She was destined to be the next master, yes, but she hadn't been told anything yet. "I want them."

"Why would I trust you with them? There's a reason why they're called secrets." The breeze carried her words across the lightly-wooded plain, and Erza reminded herself to never travel without at last two other people beside her. "I refuse the proposal."

"Do you?" Ivan tightened his grip on Gray yet again, his eyes bulging a bit as he choked on what little air he had. Her heart kicked into overdrive and she found herself stepping forward. "I wouldn't do that, sweetheart," he threatened, pulling a knife and pressing it against Gray's throat.

"A one-to-one fight," she breathed, her eyes never leaving Gray's face. His head suddenly rolled forward, passed out from lack of oxygen. "Fight me, and if you win you can have the secrets."

Ivan raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, girlie. I don't fight."

Could she time it right? Would she be able to pull this off? She felt time blur as she changed into her Leopardess armor, unsheathing her sword as she ran at Ivan, anger boiling in her stomach at him for trying to hurt her team mate. She ran the sword through something that she couldn't see as she had moved too fast.

She turned around and saw enough blood to kill anyone, but Ivan still stood. she put a hand to her mouth as he turned around, tossing aside Gray's nearly-decapitated body. She swallowed hard and sunk to her knees, her mouth falling open again. She scooted backwards on the ground, not trusting her legs as Ivan approached her.

_ikilledhimikilledhimikilledh imdearGodikilledhimthey'llneverforgiveme. _Her brain was screaming that she'd betrayed her guild, her best friend, her whole reason for still being alive, and she suddenly froze. "Oh, is the Fairy scared? Tell me, what are the secrets of the guild?"

"I'll die before I tell you. I can't betray my guild anymore," she managed, silent tears falling down her face. "Just kill me." She managed to crawl to Gray's abandoned body and curl up against him as Ivan watched with curious eyes.

"It's too bad two fairies had to die today," He said as he dropped the knife through her throat, leaving the two bodies to lay side by side.


	32. On My Mind

A/N: Happy Saturday! I might update for you guys on Tuesday (ten internet hugs for whoever can guess what it is!) with something really über-fluffy from Erza's POV. This chapter is dedicated to her for being such a freaking amazing character who is my role model in life. So, here's "On My Mind."

* * *

That was all that was on his mind - that she was at the guild, eating strawberry cake and being safe.

Or was she? Had she taken a mission because she couldn't stand being home so much? It was a possibility. Maybe she had accompanied Natsu, Lucy and Happy on an excursion to gain some extra Jewel. Could she be at a spa, enjoying some girl time with some of her female cohorts? That was also a consideration.

She could've challenged a monster and is currently bleeding out on the ground, wishing that someone would save her. She could've tried to find him, only to realize she had no clue where he was. She could be missing him terribly as she wept in her room, writing in a journal about her emotio -

Gray had to laugh at that last one. Erza would never cry over him. He was just someone used for target practice and the occasional tag team. He wasn't anything special to her.

She didn't know it, but she was his world. Everything revolved around keeping her safe and making sure she wouldn't cry. She needed Fairy Tail for that reason. If she hadn't had the guild, she probably would've killed herself a long time ago, and Gray wouldn't be where he was today.

As he laid in his hotel bed, he rolled over on his side and clutched a pillow to his chest, wishing that it was her body. After all, she was all that was ever on his mind.


	33. eye to eye

A/N: Breaking for FIVE MINUTES to post this. I have a HUGEEEEEEE 17-page paper due on Friday, and today's my birthday, and there's just a lot of crap happening in my life right now. But, this is something I just finished this morning that I started yesterday! I really like how it turned out. It's not romantic or anything, but it shows the deep amount of trust and debt they have/owe to each other. And I like that I (accidentally?) made this centered around Erza's eye. Enjoy!

* * *

"I'll never be important," she mutters, placing a hand over her eye patch. "I can't fight for real with one eye."

"That's not true, and you know it," Gray replies. "You can beat me up easily." She was always doubting herself, and Gray hated it. She was supposed to be strong for him.

"And I'm not even trying," she scoffs, rubbing a finger over the soft cloth that no doubt hid an empty eye socket. "I'm more of a burden than anything else."

"You are not," Gray insisted, patting her shoulder. "You made it here all by yourself, didn't you?"

"But I have to rely on you or Natsu to help with depth perception," she sighs, flopping back into the grass, her armor rattling. He likes her armor, since it makes him feel stronger, being side-by-side with a knight. "I want another eye, something that actually works."

"How did you even lose it?" he asks, flopping backwards also, pressing his bare feet to hers. He can feel her tense up, and she hesitates before replying.

"A mining accident," she says vaguely, not offering any further information. She was always so quiet about her past, and he wants to know more about this mysterious armored girl.

"We could talk to Master, see if the forest healer could make you a new eye," Gray offers, pushing his right foot against her left one. They begin to push against each other's feet, testing their leg strength.

"Fine," Erza replies after pushing with all her might and making Gray's knees slam into his chest. "Let's go!"

* * *

She can _see._ It's amazing. She's gone nearly a year without a proper eye, and here she is, able to look around and not favor her left side. "Thank you so much!"

She could feel tears springing to her left eye, but her new eye was tearless. "I could've sworn..." Porlyusica says, a frown forming more lines on her already aged face.

"It's okay, I don't mind," Erza smiles at the old woman and leaves without another word, sheer glee fueling her body. She has two eyes now! She can fight without feeling unbalanced and awkward!

In her haste to run back to the guild, she runs into something soft with muscles and warm skin. "Oh, I'm sorry Gray!" She says, rolling off of her fellow guildmate. "Look!" She points to her new eye.

She watches as he sputters and stammers, his face slowly lighting up. "Are you ready to fight me for real now?" He asks, balling his fists with a smile.

"I'm always ready for a fight!" She grins back, taking a fighting stance. She ignores that they're in the middle of a road, that adults are all staring at them until they catch the mark of Fairy Tail on their bodies. He beckons her after taking his own ready stance, and soon enough they are tussling in the street, months' worth of battle tension finally being resolved.

"I think if you grew out your hair, it'd compliment your new eye well," Gray coughs, spitting up a bit of blood. "I can't grab hold of it, either," he adds.

"Maybe I will," she offers up a hand, impressed with his overall performance and improvement. "I can't brush off your advice anymore, can I?"

* * *

Her long hair is pulled into a long braid, he notices, as she dances around to the quick, upbeat music that works in threes. It alternates between an enchanted violin and an enchanted flute, along with a bagpipe and the occasional drumming. She's dancing between everyone, her smile wide and bright.

"Catch, Gray!" Cana yells, tossing the redhead to him. They fall into the beat easily, dancing around happily, until he calls out for the pink-haired monster to catch the Titania. She has already made a name for herself all throughout Fiore, working as well by herself as a twenty-man team and taking on monsters ten times her size with no difficulty. He has watched her fights from afar, how her armors show off her maturing form and how nice her body actually looked beneath the iron and steel she wore.

Natsu throws the redhead back at Gray, a sly grin taking over the dragon's face. "Take her, Gray!" Gray laughs at her shocked expression and feels his face flush as she accidentally slams into his chest.

"Sorry," she mumbles, pulling away from him with an equally pink face. They dance longer than the music usually allows for partners to stay, him not wanting to let the scarlet-haired beauty move on.

"Oi, Ice-head, pass 'er on! Some of us want to dance with the teen beauty queen too, you know!" someone yells across the guild hall, and he flushes an even deeper red as he passes her along the crowd.

After most of the adults are dead drunk, Erza walks up to Gray. "You aren't half bad of a dancer, pervert," she smiles, placing a small kiss on his cheek. "See you tomorrow." He stares at her as she leaves the guild with a skip in her step, winking with her artificial eye.

* * *

"I hate this," Gray mutters, much to Erza's amusement. She finds it funny that he was temporarily blinded by monster goop. She holds his arm around her shoulders, her other arm around his waist, as she guides him onto the train they'd be riding home.

"You'll be fine, drama queen," she says affectionately, flinching when she feels his arm wrap around her waist and his fingers settle on her hip. She hasn't been touched like this since she'd been with Jellal, and she unconsciously leans into his touch. Contrary to popular belief, Gray's skin is actually very warm, as she's learned.

"But I can't _see_," he whines, flopping his head onto her shoulder. "How did you deal with this?"

"I wasn't blind, you idiot, and watch your tongue before I throw you onto the train tracks," she bites back, making sure her tone was harsh but had an undertone of jest. He squeezes her hip tightly to convey that he caught her tone.

"I'll just shut up now. Might as well be mute _and_ blind." She ruffles his hair after his nonchalant comment, enjoying his company. They had been able to take the monster down easily, but Gray had been in its dying line of fire. For a few seconds she had been afraid he'd been killed, but when he started standing up and swearing about how the "damn sun turned off," she knew he'd be okay. And the monster had been something she'd faced before. She knew the affects were only temporary.

"Thanks for not leaving me to wander the way back of the guild alone." Gray tells her after they are alone on the train.

"I know how scary it is to be without sight. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone."

* * *

"Your eyes are really pretty," she smirks at him, causing his face to flush a tomato red. She never compliments him, never tells him that he's great at his magic, never tells him he's attractive like Laki or Levy sometimes do in passing. So, it shocks him incredibly that she would even think to tell him that his eyes were pretty. Ur had always told him that, but he'd never have expected Erza to tell it to him.

"My eyes are handsome, not pretty," he counters, shifting under her weight. She's not heavy in the slightest, but she has his arms pinned under her hands, his hips pinned between her knees, and _damn _does want to switch their position so he can kiss her senseless. "_Your_ eyes, however, are pretty in every sense of the word."

Her cheeks light up slightly at his comment, and all he can do is smile stupidly up at her. She brushes a chaste kiss on his forehead before crawling off of him. "Watch where you're going next time, you pervert, or you might not be as lucky." She huffs before walking into the guild, and all Gray can really notice is that her both of her eyes are shimmering with real happiness, even if one is fake.

* * *

All she can make out in the dark were his midnight blue eyes. "I really screwed up, didn't I?" He asks quietly.

"_I_ did," she says in an incredibly quiet tone, soft enough that she's sure Gray doesn't hear it. She grabs his hand and rubs her thumb over his knuckles, but he pulls his hand away, a hurt look in the dark blue.

"Don't," he hisses. "This isn't your fault." She pouts in the darkness, wanting to explain to him that it was her fault. "I saw the malice in their eyes, too."

"I'm the leader," she hisses back, "so any irresponsible choices fall back on me." She feels the guilt of not being able to do something in return for the ice mage, after everything he's done for her. "I take full blame."

"Bullshit!" he snaps. "This is my fault, and my fault only! And you're going to accept that, because I'm so damn tired of trying to tell you that you don't owe me for anything!"

_Of course he knows. _She sighs, still locked in his midnight gaze, feeling his eyes soften. "Everything I've done for you is done because I care, not because I want it to dangle over your head. You're going to go far. I knew it from when we first met, and I wanted to help you in any way possible."

"You didn't have to," she says quietly, still unable to break eye contact. She hates that he has her trapped, but his eyes don't scare her. They make her heart beat faster at the incredibly soft gaze he sends her. "I would've figured it out myself."

"I felt like I had to, so there." He huffs, and she can hear his arms cross over his chest as he looks away.

"Then, thank you," she whispers, leaning against the wall next to him and leaning her head against his shoulder.

* * *

It wasn't a heart-to-heart conversation in her mind. It was an eye-to-eye.


	34. helpless

A/N: In response to today's chapter. I'm really worried about my baby, since Minerva might get carried away and hurt our Fairy Queen even more. Anyone else worried about Er-chan?

* * *

She is helpless.  
Her feet are broken, sharp pains shooting up her legs. Absently, she realizes she's got a head wound somewhere, and she's probably dislocated her hip, due to the nearly silenced throbbing.  
She can't give up. Not now, after everything that she's done to make it to this point. Her anger can only fuel so much, and with her feet in the condition they're in, there's no way that she can win. Not without help.  
Could she hold out until someone came to save her, until someone realized that if she was anyone other than the Titania of Fiore, she'd be instantly placed in the hospital? Could she play defense to two dying girls who she had saved in the past? Could she exceed all expectations again?  
She wanted to. She wanted to plow through any obstacle to save those important to her, but she couldn't. She was injured to the point of inability to fight. She couldn't go any farther.  
And it was in that moment that she realized she wasn't the name she lived up to. She wasn't titanium. She was just a person.  
An extremely broken person.


	35. rosemary

A/N: This... I just... Wow. Spoilers for chapter 315, with references to post episode 41(?). Gah, this hurt really bad to write. I also recently watched the Tower of Heacen arc, and I cried myself to sleep. It was terrible.

* * *

She was terrified. "Mama! Papa!" She yelled, trying to find her parents among the chaos. Building were burning, adults were trying to hide their children.

"Onii-chan!" A young girl wailed, and she noted the girl as her friend Simon's little sister. "Where are you?" Erza couldn't let they younger girl be taken by the bad men invading her village.

"If we stay here, they'll find us!" Erza told the little girl, looking around desperately for a place to hide the little girl.

"But my brother is..." the girl started, tears still sliding down her face. Erza saw a crate and dragged the little girl toward it.

"Hey, I heard kid voices over there!" One of the men yelled. Erza frantically opened the crate and dropped her into it.

"Hide!" Erza said in a loud whisper, starting to lower the lid on the crate.

"What about you?" The young girl asked with a loud sniffle. Erza shook her head.

"It's okay, I'll find another place." Erza smiled at the little girl, even though her stomach was flip-flopping with panic. "Live."

Erza dropped the lid and ran, trying to find safety, but she could hear the approaching footsteps of a man. She ran faster, pumping her arms and trying to make her strides as long as possible, but she felt the man grab the back of her dress anyway. "Let me go!" She yelled angrily, struggling against the man's grip. He cackled in response and threw her over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes, and her eyes widened when she saw a flash of vibrant red hair.

_Mama. _Erza struggled even more, trying to squirm out of the man's grip to reach her beloved mother. She also saw her father next to her, but two men were standing behind them, guns pressed to their skulls. She could see the fear and sadness in their eyes as the two men behind her parents pulled the trigger on the guns. The loud sound of the gunshots echoed through her head, and she watched in mute horror as they crumpled to the ground, bits of gray and red coating the ground. She stared in shock at their limp bodies, how her mother's hair looked even brighter against the light of the flames and with blood oozing into it, how her father's light brown hair now looked like her own vibrant red locks.

She closed her eyes and hoped that the little girl she'd just saved was safe.

* * *

"_Erza, darling, you look so cute! Come on, let's go get our pictures taken!"_

_Erza nodded in response and held her mother's hand as the two of them left the house, to where her father was waiting for them outside the house. "You look adorable, sweetheart!" her father commented, running his fingers through her stylishly-choppy red hair. She loved it when he played with her hair, since it felt so comforting. Her mother was sometimes rough with her hair, but her father was always as gentle as possible. She let go of her mother's hand and ran to her father, letting him pick her up and carry her on his hip._

_She loved picture day. She enjoyed sitting with her mother on the couch and looking over the old pictures, staring in awe at how much she'd grown. "Mama, someday I want to be just like you!" she told her mother as they walked further into town. Her mother smiled, a man suddenly appearing behind her with a gun. He pulled the trigger, and Erza could feel the scream rolling in the back of her throat -_

"Erza? Are you okay?" Simon asked, still absently stroking her hair as her head still sat in his lap. They were in the back of a magic-powered car, she remembered, going somewhere she didn't know. "You started sweating really badly."

"I'm fine. It was just a bad dream," she said sadly. "I hid your sister in a crate behind your house."

Simon smiled; a relaxed, hopeful smile that made her heart swell. She loved Simon like a big brother, so she always tried to make him smile. "Thank you, Erza. Try to get back to sleep. I don't know what might happen next."

* * *

"You six are the back-up workers," the man told the children in the cell. "If one of the older kids gets hurt or can't work, you'll take their place. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Erza replied, wishing for her mother and father. They would tell the man not to treat her, or any of the children, badly. She was slumped against the wall, her hand resting in Simon's, which seemed so much larger and stronger than her own. The man huffed and walked away.

She watched the little girl with dirty blonde hair cower in the corner, then diverted her eyes to the boy with blonde hair who trembled and shook like he was terribly cold. There was another boy with black hair by the blue-haired boy, and the markings on the blue-haired boy's face intrigued her.

Erza wanted these people to be her friends, since they would be stuck together for a long time. "Hi. My name's Erza. This is Simon." She stood up to say her name, but just shook Simon's hand to indicate who he was.

"Don't you have a last name?" The boy with blue hair asked. "Either of you?"

Erza looked at the boy questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"It's your family name, something that ties you the people you live with," the boy with blue hair said. "Like, my name is Jellal Fernandez."

"I don't have a fancy name like that. I've always been 'Erza'. Is that bad?" She said, a small frown tugging at her lips. "Anyway, I don't have any family left." She added as an afterthought, tears prickling at her eyes. She couldn't cry. Not now.

"We'll just have to give you one." The boy, Jellal, said kindly. "Hmm. How about Scarlet? Like your hair?"

"Erza Scarlet?" She asked, liking how it sounded as it rolled off her tongue. "Erza Scarlet. I like that. Thank you!"

"How about everyone else? What are your names?" Jellal asked boldly. Erza really liked this blue-haired boy. He seemed strong and bold, things that she admired.

"I'm Wally," the boy who'd been sitting next to him said. He seemed nice enough in Erza's eyes.

"My name's Milliana," the girl with cat ears spoke quietly. Erza had an urge to protect the younger girl, since she looked so small and scared. Erza was scared too, but she tried to be brave for everyone else in the cell.

"I'm S-Sho," the shaking boy stammered. "Isn't this a slave camp?"

Jellal sighed. "Yeah, this is a slave camp," he sat on the ground, facing everyone. "But we'll live. We have to."

* * *

"And that's the story of what happened," Erza breathed out heavily, still laying on the bed about a foot from Gray. "Does that help?"

"Wow," he breathed, throwing his arm over his forehead. "No wonder you always like fighting with me. You had to know if you could trust me. And Jellal," Gray hesitated, "sounded like a good kid."

"He helped all of us, and we helped him when we could. If he was requested for work, Simon or I would go in his place. If there was punishment, Wally or Millianna would say that it was their fault." She sighed, copying Gray's position. "It hurt all of us to find he was using us for Zeref's plan."

"We won't betray you, Erza. All of us love you too much to do it. You can trust us." Gray told her.

"That's what he said, too." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to relax her tense muscles. "That's what he told us all -" she choked back a sudden sob, feeling the tears prickle to her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of Gray, so she sat up, wiping her eyes with her arm.

"You don't have to be so strong," he mumbled, scooting closer to her. "I'm always here. I won't leave."

She buried her face in his neck, oblivious to his distinct smell, and cried, mourning the loss of her old friend and releasing the tears of being broken by her first love.


	36. Settle

A/N: I really really like this one. There's just something about it that makes me smile like a crazy person. And, um, this is really fluffy?

* * *

Her things were all in boxes by her front door. Her fridge was emptied of all cake and cake-related products. Her furniture was arranged how it had been when she'd moved in nearly fifteen years ago.

In her paint-stained overalls, knee-high rubber boots and tied-back hair, she leaned against the wall and slid down as she took in the too-bare dorm room.

A wedding ring was sitting on her left ring finger, the matching engagement one on a chain around her neck. She thought back to when she had just moved into the room, back when it seemed like too much space for just her. Sometimes, she'd let Gray sneak in and they'd share the large queen bed, their limbs becoming entangled through the night as they both tossed and turned.

As they grew older, she realized that she cared for him more than she should, but she squelched those feelings in favor of obtaining a higher magic level. Now that she was officially the "fairy princess," as everyone called her, she was able to settle down with the only person she knew she'd be able to love forever.

They shared a lot of memories with this room. When he broke in and tried to go through her underwear drawer, when they'd fought and when she accidentally cut his chest and he had almost bled out, and when he found her collection of romance books that had come from Levy. All of those memories would be tied to this room, but she had a whole new life she would start in her new, larger home.

She started packing the boxes onto the cart, watching as the room dwindled to hold nothing. As she slid the last box onto the cart, she glanced once more around the room before shutting the door and locking it up, along with all the old memories of childhood crushes.

Now, she had a real dream to live.


	37. hands

A/N: A bit of Gray supporting Erza in a moment of weakness. Who else noticed the change of genres? I figured that since almost everything is angst, might as well change it. Enjoy~

* * *

Her hands shake as she scrubs them under the faucet. The water stains pink, and all she can think about is how she just killed a man, a civilian. She killed someone who possibly had a family, had a job, could have a business to run or fields to plow. She killed a man just because he was in her way.  
All she can see is the way his blood splattered against her skin, how her clothes were still stained red from the sticky substance. She shuts the water off and grips the sink tightly, resting her head against the rim between her shaking hands and dropping into a squat. What if his family had seen her kill him?

"You okay, Erza?" Two hands grip her shoulders and she feels the thumbs draw circles on her tense neck.

"I killed a man," she breathes, leaning her head back and pressing the top of her head against a warm neck. "I killed a man because he didn't obey my orders."

The person behind her sighs and drops to the ground behind her, and she feels his hands pull her onto his lap. His hands, bloodstained as well, take hers. "He would've been the cause of everyone else's deaths, right?" He asks, though it's a rhetorical question. She would never take a life of a civilian if it wasn't mandatory. He takes her silence as a yes, and continues on. "One death is preferred over dozens," he tells her gently.

She stares at her hands, the way that their skin is cracked due to the harsh actions she puts them through. She hates these things, she decides, based off of what they have done. They are also ugly, with knobby knuckles and hangnails that bleed at any provocation. The nails have been trimmed and the beds are sore from the scrubbing that relieved them of their red tint. His hands are the same in appearance, but they aren't responsible for the murder of innocent people. They are stained with the blood of a monster, not of a person she could've protected.

"Your hands are pretty," she whispers, rubbing her thumb over the rough skin of her nakama's hand, watching as the dried blood flakes onto her lap. The blood of something that was not human. "Mine are the hands of a murderer."

"Don't say that," he tells her harshly. "We saved dozens of people today, and if we only lost one person, then it was a successful mission. You killed to save other's lives. There were kids that he put in danger." His voice is soothing, and one of his hands snakes to her neck again and his thumb continues the circles it was rubbing into the tense muscles earlier.

"I've killed before, too," she barely manages to squeak out before her throat constricts and she is forced back into the memories of her later adolescent years, when she was a slave and her magic was activated by the grief of losing the only adult figure she loved that was alive. She remembers the blood that had spilled on her because she wanted to save Jellal, and now she realizes that they could've had families, too. Gray pries his hand from her grip and moves his hands down her spine, working out the tense knots her muscles had formed.

She was a killer. She murdered for a living. She shouldn't have these hands that could work magic, because without it, she could keep people alive - "Erza, stop thinking like that. You do what it takes to keep Fiore safe. If a few lives are lost, doesn't it mean that everyone can keep living?"

She leans back against his muscular frame, indulging in the feeling of his warmth and his arms wrap around her torso. It wasn't romantic in the slightest; it was comfort being shared between two people. Gray didn't say anything, but she could feel her words having a slight affect on him, and his memories of how his mentor had died were stirring in him. He rested his forehead on her shoulder, and she took one of his hands in hers, and together they sat on the floor in the bathroom at a motel in a city somewhere west of Magnolia in silence, holding respect for the people they had lost due to their childhood ignorance.


	38. Fall

A/N: LOLOL ANGST. Nalu at the end. I'm sorry, but at the same time, not sorry? BUt today, I learned that my mother keeps notecards in our pantry and that my German teacher doesn't like it with office supplies jump from windows to their deaths.

* * *

She had her back pressed against his, moving the same way he did, allowing their breaths to sync together.

"Gray, there's a cliff coming up to your left," she breathed, stabbing another attacker right through the heart.

"How many paces?" He asked, and by the sound of sloshing, she assumed he stabbed an attacker and they spun positions.

"Now? Twelve," she replied, "and those are your paces. I'd have about fourteen." Another lunge at an attacker.

"They just keep replicating. Does it look like a far drop?" He lunged as well, a thud reverberating though the ground.

She craned her neck and estimated the fall. "Over seventy feet into deep water." With another lunge, she took out two more attackers.

"Well, crap. How do we do this? Jump and hope we live?" Gray asked as their feet moved in circles. "They're pushing us to the edge."

"I don't think we should push back. Their orders _are_ to kill us," she recalled, "and the less blood they get on hands, the better. They're going to send us off the cliff."

"They're mindless demons. How can they think that well?" There was the sound of something falling into water. "And they aren't afraid to sacrifice their own." Gray grimaced and clenched his teeth; she could feel it since the backs of their heads were pressed together.

"Did you update your will?" She watched as the attackers fell backwards from the cliff's edge, the feeling of adrenaline filling her blood again.

He shrugged. "I left everything to you, but if you're dead, I gave it all to the fire-breathing asshole."

"Same here, except I left mine for Lucy." She rubbed the back of his head with her own. "We're _way_ outnumbered. There's no way -"

" - we can live. How many paces now?" Gray finished for her, sending the gesture back.

"Two," she said quietly. "All the things on the left side have fallen over the edge." She didn't want to die. She hadn't mothered a child, hadn't seen all of Magnolia, hadn't -

Strong arms pulled her around as their four feet stepped twice before nothing was under them. She pressed her forehead to his. "It's the end." He nodded in agreement and captured her lips in his own.

* * *

The two lovers fell farther and farther as the people at the dock gaped at them.

"Lover's leap," one sailor said, dropping his grain bag. "They knew it was the end, so they fell together." There was a loud splash.

"Is that what we're naming that cliff now? Lover's Leap? Geez, that's so stupid, Kyle."

"No one asked you, Dave. We need to get the bodies," Kyle frowned, walking to the edge of the ocean and waited until the two, who were still pressed together, floated a bit more inland.

"Damn, these are Fairy Tail mages." Dave said, crouching next to the boy and girl. "Good lookin', too."

"How about The Fairies' Fall? Seems a bit more original." Kyle asked.

"Yeah, sounds better than Lover's Leap, you dingbat. Get the girl, and let's haul them into town."

* * *

"So, this is where Auntie Erza and Uncle Gray died?" A young girl with pink hair and brown eyes asked, looking over the cliff. "It's too pretty to be a grave."

A man with matching pink hair ruffled her hair and nodded. A woman with bright blonde hair took her husband's hand and squeezed it. "Erza and Gray helped end an uprising of artificial humans. They're very important people."

"I know that, Mommy! And then you and Daddy killed the man who made the things that killed them!" The little girl smiled. "I'm glad you gave me Auntie Erza's name. She was so brave to try and fight those things. I want to grow up to be just like her!"

Natsu and Lucy exchanged a sad glance. Little Erza would grow up like her namesake, to go on missions to keep the mage world safe. She would go through the same trials, fight similar monsters.

"Just don't be like your uncle. He ripped his clothes off all the time." Lucy chuckled and picked up her child.

Natsu grunted."The Fairies' Fall, huh? Seems pretty accurately named."

* * *

A/N(zwei): Hi, I'm Sarah, and you've just been Punk'd!


	39. mistakenly Theirs

A/N: Hot damn, lookit! 3500 words, done in just a weekend! :D Hopefully you like momma!Erza, daddy!Gray, and daughter!Wendy. Sorry for any weird tense changes.

* * *

Erza smiles at the girl who has fallen against Gray's shoulder as she sleeps. Gray was also dozing, but he had learned the art of tilting his head back and snoring, much to Erza's irritation and amusement.

Erza and Gray had intended for this to be a solo mission, but Wendy had no one to go on a mission with and it broke Erza's heart. Besides, the blunette would be a good addition to their partnership. The train pulls into the station just as Wendy cuddles closer to Gray, and Erza can't help but feel like she and Gray were the two people Wendy was closest to, except for Natsu and Gajeel, as they were both Dragon Slayers just like the young girl. Gray wraps his arm protectively around the smaller girl, and Erza almost feels like squeezing between Gray and the arm of the seat they sat in, just so they could be like a family, something all three of them have longed for since they were terribly young.

Instead, she wakes them up and tells them that it's time to get off the train. "Are we starting our mission today?" Wendy asks quietly with a yawn, stretching widely and almost hitting Gray. "I'm so sorry, Gray-san!" She apologizes immediately, even though she doesn't hit him.

"It's okay, Wendy, geez," Gray says, patting her head affectionately. "And I think we're starting tomorrow. Right, Erza?"

She nods in agreement as they get off the train, Erza's luggage squeezing through the narrow aisle, people swearing at her for flattening them back into their seats. "We'll start our plan to fight the witch coven tomorrow at dawn."

"Sounds fun," Gray says dryly, his bag tossed causally over his shoulder, and Wendy dragging along her rolling suitcase behind her. Erza loves having Gray's sense of humor along on missions, even if it's typically sarcastic and crude.

"Can we explore the town, Erza-san?" Wendy asks, her eyes widening. Erza can't say no to the puppy-dog look. "After we drop our luggage off, of course," the blunette adds meekly.

"Why not?" Erza smiles and ruffles the youngest Dragon Slayer's hair. "Gray, which way is the hotel?"

"Why should I know?" He asks with a shrug. "I wasn't in charge of reservations."

Erza raises an eyebrow at him. "I told you _specifically_ to make reservations two days ago," she grinds out slowly, feeling frustration toward the aloof ice mage build in her blood.

"And then you said you'd take care of it because Natsu attacked me. Again," he sighs. "So, reservations didn't get made."

"Actually," Wendy starts quietly, "I called to double check on our rooms like you told me I should, Erza-san. They didn't have us marked, so I placed us under 'Fullbuster.' " She drew with her toe in the dust, her face shading a dark red. "The hotel is just down the street."

"At least someone on our team has half a brain," Erza mutters, but a smile sneaks on her face anyway. Erza lets Wendy take the lead, sneaking a glance at Gray and taking note that he was also smiling. They probably looked like proud parents as the preteen skipped down the road before stopping and pointing at a building.

Erza watches as Gray talked to the receptionist as he got their room key. "Reservation for Fullbuster," he tells the woman behind the desk, who grunts as she reaches for the set of keys. Wendy stands on her tiptoes to peer over the high-ledged countertop, and Erza can't stop the smile on her face.

"What a cute little girl you two have!" The woman gushes, handing the metal key to Gray. "You must be complimented all the time on your beautiful daughter, Mr. Fullbuster."

"H-hah?" Gray raises an eyebrow in shock as Erza is doubled over laughing. "Oh, no, no, she's not my daughter -"

"Aw, how sweet of you to help raise your wife's child, then! You must really love her!" The receptionist smiles. "Well, have a nice day!"

"She's not my wife!" Gray yells indignantly, though by this point in time Wendy has already started skipping down the hall and Erza is dragging him after her. "You're not my wife, right?" Gray questions, a small frown tugging on his face. When she doesn't reply, he yells, "Erza Scarlet, you did not get us a job where we are supposed to be married!"

"Gray, Gray, Gray," Erza clicks her tongue at the poor ice mage who is baffled beyond belief. "How else are we supposed to attack the witches coven? We, as concerned parents, are taking our lovely daughter to have witches fix her immune system, which has been poorly functioning since she was an infant. After we're sure that they'll fix our daughter, we attack like the astounding mages we are."

At this, Wendy doubles over with fake coughing, but she smiles brightly back at her "parents." Gray stares at the exquip mage in disbelief, but proceeds to sigh as he realizes that there was no backing out of this.

"So, we have double beds," Erza says when Wendy unlocks their room. "I'll share with Wendy, and you can have a bed to yourself," She tells the ice mage, who grunts in response and tosses his luggage on the bed closest to the bathroom. Erza's luggage is shoved against the window, and Wendy sets her rolling suitcase on the bed. "Well, let's go explore the town!"

"Are we going out in family-mode or mage mode?" Gray asks. "I have to know how I need to behave."

"Family-mode, Gray. When in doubt, family-mode is best." Erza replies, taking Wendy's hand in hers. "Now come on!" She grabs Gray's hand as well and they head out of the hotel and into the streets, where all sorts of vendors and carts await the "Fullbusters."

* * *

It took Wendy a while to feel comfortable with calling Erza "Mom" and Gray "Dad". She couldn't remember her biological parents, and Grandine had been the closest thing to a mother she'd ever had. Erza and Gray felt more like older siblings, but Wendy could feel the motherly tenderness that Erza treated her with, even before this mission. When they'd gone with Eclaire the one time, and the sphere had lit up, both Erza and Gray and thrown themselves in front of her, simply as an instinctive precaution. They hadn't thought about the action; they had just done it.

"Mom," Wendy says quietly, pulling on Erza's sleeve, "I really like that dress." There was a cute, cotton halter top dress that was cream with a brown stripe across the ribs, and it flowed like a blanket of liquid snow. Erza gazed at it reminiscently, as though a similar fabric held positive memories.

"I have one just like it. I wore it on the first time I went out on a "date" with your father," Erza tells her before asking the man inside the tent how much it cost, haggling a bit on the price before dishing out the money for the dress. Wendy stops for a moment, though, and rethinks Erza's words. Had Gray and Erza actually gone on a date once? Had it not worked out?

Erza hands the bag with the cream dress in it to Wendy, who smiles gratefully at her as the exquip mage continues to dote on her "daughter". Erza halts at a jewelry stand, eyeing Wendy's ears with a small, devilish smile on her face. "Excuse me, ma'am?" Erza asks the woman running the shop. "Do you do piercings?"

"I can," the elderly woman smiles, digging around for something. Wendy has never thought about getting her ears pierced, and she wonders when Erza got hers done. Now was the perfect time to do it, too. "Just the firsts, right, miss?"

"Yes, please," Wendy says meekly as the woman sets up a stool for Wendy to sit on. The woman, who introduces herself as Melanie, takes a marker and tries to center a small dot on each earlobe, before taking her head and checking to make sure that the dots were centered properly.

"Ya can't go 'round havin' lopsided firsts," she grunts before pulling an apple and a needle from her bag. "This'll hurt, but not as bad as falling and scraping your knee."

Wendy clenches her hands on the hem of her dress as the needle pierces through her earlobe but it doesn't hurt. She's glad for the countless battles she's been injured in, as they've raised her pain tolerance. Melanie changes to the other ear, and Wendy watches Erza take her own earrings out and dunks them in a bottle of liquid. She takes one of them and slowly pushes it through the freshly-pierced hole. Erza repeats the action in her other ear, and Melanie huffs. "You'll be buying a pair of earrings, right?" She asks.

"I'll take these ones," Erza tells her, picking out silver hoops. "Thank you," she gives Melanie a hundred Jewel and takes Wendy out of the stall.

"Did you really give me these?" Wendy asks, fingering the lightweight dangling silver.

"They accent you better," Erza tells her with a shrug. "C'mon, we need to find your father." Wendy nods and they head in the general direction of the food. Wendy is in awe at the silver earrings still, wondering if Erza really wanted her to have them. "Do you want anything to eat?"

Wendy shakes her head. She's really not hungry, and she's still can't figure out why Erza would give her the earrings. Was she just being nice, or did she really want Wendy to have them? Wendy felt like she owed Erza something for these presents.

"Hey," a voice startles her, and she feels a hand grab hers. She whirls around to find Gray smiling at her. "What's in the bag?"

"Mom bought me a dress," she tells him, before holding back her hair and showing him her earrings, "and she let me get my ears pierced."

"Aren't those hers?" He asks. She nods in response, a grin forming on her face. "They look good on you, darling. Erza, it's getting late, we should be getting back to the hotel."

"I want to get some deep-fried cheesecake," Erza tells him, and Wendy giggles. "Why don't you two head back, and I'll see you there."

"Sounds good. Hurry up, though," Gray tells her, placing a chaste kiss on her cheek that makes both of their faces turn red.

"You really love Mom, don't you?" Wendy asks as they walk down the street, and Wendy can't help but feel like the matchmaker here. Maybe they'd get together if she pushed hard enough. She notes that she sounds like the child in a first marriage when the mother is getting remarried.

"Who wouldn't?" He replies, walking into the lobby of the hotel and heading toward their room. "She's such a great actress, and so loving, and she's an amazing mage."

"Then make a move, Gray-san!" She tells him once the door to their hotel room is closed. "Erza-san loves you too, or else she would've picked someone else for this mission. Erza-san knows you can pull off loving husband, because you two can act like you're married without even trying."

Gray sighs as he sits on his bed. "If I had a hundred Jewel for every time I've heard that. Do you know how hard it is to tell someone you love them?"

Wendy sits next to him. "I do, Gray-san, but you have to try. Please? Things could go bad on this mission, and Erza-san might need a shoulder to lean on."

His arms wraps around her tiny waist and she hugs him back. "I'll try, Wendy. But if she beats me up, you'll heal me, right?"

"Of course, Gray-san," she smiles. "Do you mind if I go take a shower?"

"Not at all."

* * *

Gray wakes up before the sun rises, so he can get the hot water he needs. But what he was not expecting when he checks on the girls was that Wendy would be curled up next to Erza, and Erza would have her arms wrapped protectively around the blunette. To Gray, it looks like they really could be mother and child. Smiling, he grabs a change of clothes from his bag and takes a shower, and he realizes that, in time, it was possible that Erza would be cuddling with her own child in a few years.

He has to get his act together, or someone could beat him to the punch and he'd be left without anyone he could really love. He needs to take Wendy's advice.

He shuts off the shower and puts on his clothes, and when he leaves the bathroom he finds Erza donning one of his shirts. "What are you doing?" He asks, going for an irritating tone, but due to Wendy's giggling he assumes he sounded indifferent.

"Covering my mark, obviously. None of my clothes are long sleeved." Erza says, and her tone changes as she continues. "You don't mind, do you?" It's not really a question, it's an order. He shrugs noncommittally, turning away from the changing girls and thinking about how they should go about beating this witch coven, which has been known for "accidentally" killing anyone from a guild. He can't help but imagine how they might hurt Wendy when they see her guild mark.

"Gray-san, don't worry," Wendy chimes, and before he knows it her tiny arms are wrapped around him. "I'll be okay. I can fight, too, if I have to."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I can't worry," He tells her, and Erza sits next to him on the bed. "This is pretty risky."

"We've done worse, Gray," Erza reminds him, resting her hand on his shoulder. He nods, remembering the terrible missions they've gone on, to help with taking down dark guild militias, and he can't help but shiver at the memories of those missions.

"We should start our trek into the woods, then," Gray suggests, and neither of the girls argue. Erza gets off the bed first, and Gray follows and picks Wendy up off the bed. She squeaks when he tosses her over his shoulder, but Erza laughs at Wendy's quiet pleads of "Put me down, please!"

They were just like a family, and it had only taken faking it for an evening to realize it.

* * *

"May I help you?" A painfully polite woman asked, her eyes narrowing at the three people who reeked of ridiculously strong magic power. She'd have to alert Mabusa.

"I believe we made an appointment under Marvell," the man said, and Gray could feel his anxiety building. He had made the appointment, right? He kept his face neutral as the woman dug around, her eyes narrowing when she brought out a little card with 'Marvell" written on it. She almost wished that she'd lost the card, but since she found it, she'd have to honor it.

"Our head witch will get with you soon," she faked the smile that she sent them away with. The girl didn't seem sick, nor did she smell similar to the two adults with her. The girl's genetic makeup was different, not their child. She abandoned the desk and went back to talk to Mabusa. The head witch was reclining in her chair, her violently orange hair in a bun and her outfit a starkly ugly green, but that couldn't be helped. "Mabusa, ma'am, we have a situation."

"What now, Beverly?" Her gravelly voice ground out, irritation present.

"We have three mages here, with one reeking of power similar to one of the Ten Wizard Saints. The littlest one has the power of an S-class." Beverly frowned. "The two older ones claim their daughter has an immune system deficiency, but the littlest one doesn't smell like their offspring."

"I'll take care of them, Beverly. Just send them back." Mabusa snorted with irritation.

The receptionist came back to her desk and told them to go through the door. Wendy started coughing then, a deep, throaty bark that shook her and had her struggling for breath. Erza, the ever-doting mother, rubbed her back, concern plastered on her face. Gray hated that look on her face, even if it wasn't real.

"Hello. I'm Mabusa," the witch greeted them, her expression pleasant and friendly, even if her voice was deep and gravelly. "What can I help you folks with?" The door closed behind them, and Gray instantly felt on guard. He doubted that this witch would stay calm for much longer.

"Our daughter, the poor thing," Erza said, readjusting Wendy on her lap, "has the weakest immune system. She's always sick, and I've had to homeschool her, since being around people seems to cause her to get sick all over again. Is there any way to make her better?"

"I need to perform an overall examination of the girl first, and then I'll be able to decide. But I need to have the room to myself and the girl, if you wouldn't mind." Mabusa was incredibly pleased with herself. If only they'd leave the room, leaving the girl to her...

"Of course, we completely understand. We trust your judgment, as you are the best healing witch in the area." Erza nodded in complacence. "Come on, let's wait outside." She slid Wendy off her lap and stood up, dragging Gray after here.

"I'll fetch you in a minute." Mabusa waved them out before begging to prep the inspection table. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Wendy," she replied, sitting back in the chair, feeling incredibly anxious but keeping those feelings hidden. If she'd learned anything from Erza and Gray, it was that you put on a brave face even if you were panicking inside.

"That's a lovely name," Mabusa told her, patting the table for her to jump up on it. "Can I have you lay down so I can get a good look?" Wendy nodded and laid down on the table, closing her eyes to prepare the worst. How would this go? "This might hurt a bit," Mabusa warned, but nothing the witch said would've prepared Wendy for the excruciating pain cutting across her abdomen. Her eyes squeezed shut instinctively from the severe pain. It felt like something was clawing her insides out, but she couldn't scream. Her voice was gone. She couldn't move, couldn't do anything to protect herself.

"The game's up, Mabusa," she heard a voice hiss, and her heart soared. "If you let her go now, we might go easy on you." That was Gray's voice, her brain was able to tell her, even though it was still screaming in pain. Was she actually cut open?

"No can do, my dear mages," Mabusa laughed, and there is suddenly more pain and Wendy can finally use her vocal cords to scream in accordance to the pain. It was loud and shrill, making her own eardrums hurt and she just wanted it to stop, stop, _stop_. But it won't and something slippery falls onto her hand and she realizes that she's bleeding now.

"You expect to live now, Mabusa?" Wendy barely hears Erza's ferocious whisper, and she knows that the witch is mincemeat. "You don't hurt Wendy." Gray added an affirmative statement, and suddenly there was more screaming, and then Wendy was cradled to Erza's chest and she told Wendy she's so so sorry and didn't mean to put her in that situation. Gray pulled her away and started wrapping her abdomen with gauze, telling her she can heal herself later and Erza was in tears still. Wendy could barely stand the pain, and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Gray carried the limb blunette from the cottage in the forest - which he let Erza destroy and kill any more of the inhabitants - and now they were on a train home, Erza holding Wendy on her lap as the younger girl slept with her head tucked against Erza's neck. Gray again thought of them as an adorable mother-daughter pair, and maybe this is what it would take to get Erza to decide that it was time to have a family of her own. Maybe she'd even pick him.

"Gray," Erza spoke quietly, not wanting to wake up the wounded girl. She patted the part of the bench next to her, and he stood up and sat next to the exquip mage. She leaned her head against his shoulder. "This was a good learning experience, wasn't it?" She asked, her hand stroking Wendy's feathery locks. "We made a good family."

"We did," He replied, resting his head against hers. "Maybe someday we can go back but it'll be real." He didn't to say it. It slipped out and he bit his lip, cursing himself for even suggesting it.

"I'd like that," Erza said, her free hand resting on top of his. "But hopefully we won't have to sacrifice our only child to a coven of witches."

Gray weakly laughed at the attempt of a joke. "Yeah, but then again, we aren't mages for nothing. Let me hold her," he offered, pulling Wendy off Erza's lap and resting her against his body. "Sleep. We've had a long day."

"Goodnight, Gray," Erza said, sliding to the other bench and curling up on her side, using his discarded jacket as a pillow and falling asleep almost instantly.

"Are you happy now?" He asked the Dragon Slayer, who didn't reply but he knew she heard him. He managed to fall asleep too, almost in the same position as the day before.


	40. Payphone

A/N: Only took me like twenty minutes to write this. I liked this idea. I ran with it. Inspired by the first few lines of Payphone by Maroon 5. Just so you know, post-Dragon-attack AU is at like 4800 words, and I started it on Tuesday. I'M ON A ROLL. And _Ich liebe dich_ actually means _I love you_, and **Gray freaking knows it. **

Happy Grayza.

* * *

Erza watches as the mages of Fairy Tail exchange chocolates and flowers in amusement, smiling at how the Iron Dragon Slayer actually _blushes _when Levy gives him small iron bits covered in chocolate (Erza absently wonders if he'll like them; Levy spent a lot of time on those) and how Natsu eats Lucy's chocolate without even thinking about considering how good they might taste. Juvia is disheartened that "Gray-sama" isn't at the guild. Elfman is giving flowers to Evergreen, who scoffs at the type of them but Erza can see the small blush on the arrogant woman's cheeks.

And Erza sits in her usual booth, picking at her strawberry cake because she won't be the giver _or_ the receiver this year. She knew he'd be gone beforehand, and he was probably thankful that he was gone. But she wishes he was there, because then she could've at least been able to watch him turn down Juvia in amusement.

"Erza, phone for you," Mira calls from the bar, and the guild falls silent for a moment until Natsu yells something about wanting to start a fight and launches himself at Elfman, who laughs and fights back. Erza shakes her head in mock annoyance, because she loves everyone in Fairy Tail to pieces and doesn't mind their destructive tendencies because she has them too. She ponders over who could be calling her, because she'd talked to Jellal a few days ago, and she'd spoken to Millianna yesterday. Who could possibly be calling her?

"Hello?" She asks as she takes the phone from Mira, almost dropping the plastic in shock when the person on the other end speaks.

"Hey, Erza," Gray replies, his voice low and raspy, as though he's incredibly tired and can't wait to get to bed. He probably is. She feels her mood perk up instantly.

"How's the extended vacation?" She looks out the front window and the sun is shining brightly and most of the pedestrians outside are in short sleeves, even though it isn't even spring yet, so she decides to head outside with her phone call. Dumping what pocket change she has on the bar as payment for the phone call, (she'll pay more layer) she crosses the guild hall to go outside.

"It's not bad, but the weather's too cold and the language is harsh-sounding. I feel like someone's yelling at me no matter where I go." Gray sighs, but there's no mistaking the smile in his voice. She is outside and the warm sun warms her to her bones. The wind is a bit chilly, but she doesn't mind. "Not too much different from when we take missions together."

She scoffs. "I do not yell at you constantly. I only yell at you when you need it." She picks a spot in the sun to sit on, laying herself out on the grass as the wind tosses her hair across her face. "Do you think they'll sign the alliance?"

"I give them a week before they stop playing hard-to-get. We have a lot to offer, don't forget. They don't have magic." He yawns, and she can almost his body next to hers as they lay outside and talk about whatever their minds came across, and she longs for him to be next to her. He always has been, and since he's gone she can't help but feel a bit empty.

"So, you'll be home soon?" She tries to hide the hopefulness in her voice, but since he laughs she assumed she failed.

"About two weeks, most likely. This whole time-zone thing is throwing me off." They both sit in silence, but she can hear the springs in his hotel bed creak as he readjusts himself and yawn again. "_Ich liebe dich," _he says suddenly, and she can't make heads or tails of the statement.

"What's that mean?" She asks, watching as a cloud passes over the sun.

"I miss you," he says confidently, and she feels a blush creep onto her cheeks. "And I can't wait to come home."

She smiles to herself, wishing that he could tell it to her face but knowing that he couldn't. "Well, _ich liebe dich _also," she replies, "and I can't wait for you to be home."

"I need to go to bed. Can I call you tomorrow?" He asks, and she nods, forgetting that he can't see her.

"Yeah," she finally says, sitting up. "I'll tell everyone you said hi."

"Thanks. Good night, Erza," he says, his voice drowsy and low, something that she didn't know she could love so much.

"Night, Gray." She replies, waiting for him to hang up first before heading back into the guild with a huge smile on her face.

* * *

~OMAKE~

Mira watched through the window as Erza laid in the grass, subconsciously twirling her hair around her finger while occasionally crossing and uncrossing her bent knees.

"Who's she on the phone with?" Cana called from closer to the bar.

"Obviously a boy," Macao piped up. "She wouldn't twirl her hair like that if it wasn't."

"Someone she knows well. Her shoulders aren't tense," Levy observed, standing next to Mira. "Maybe Jellal?"

"Jellal called the other day," Mira responded, "and she stayed in the guild while she talked to him. Oh, boy, this is a love interest."

"Lu-chan, I bet you know who it is!" Levy hollered, launching herself at her best friend. "C'mon, Lu-chan, spill it."

"W-why would I know?" Lucy stammered nervously.

"It's obviously the Icicle," Natsu told Levy, and everyone's jaw dropped. "You guys didn't know they were together?"

"Oh, that makes much more sense," Mira mumbled to herself, heading back behind the bar to ready the alcohol she might need to serve up.


	41. hands teil zwei

A/N: I GOT SO ANGRY BECAUSE I REALIZED I POSTED THE FIRST PART OF THIS ALREADY. They were supposed to be back-to-back. Sorry I'm so late, though! Lacrosse has been beating me up and I have big projects to do for English and German and I've just been so busy. Here's some angst!Gray. I hope you like it.

P.S. Sorry (actually why am I apologizing) for the double update. You deserve more than what you get. Thank DiamondRainbows if you get the chance because she's inspired my update for tonight!

* * *

He's killed a woman.

"Gray, get up! We're not done yet!" A strong, unwavering feminine voice scolds him, before yanking him up off the ground, where he was still trying to get air into his deprived lungs. "Take the west sector, and then we'll head back into town."

He nods without really understanding what he's supposed to do, but then his empty ice gun reminds him. He grimly heads west, only to find the area full of children. No adults preside over them, and he hopes that his orders don't carry to kids as well. They see him and freeze, terrified out of their minds.

A bomb goes off somewhere and he feels a hand slide over his shoulders about thirty seconds later, while he's still frozen to the spot, trying to think of what he should do. He tenses beneath the hand, but the callouses are familiar and he knows it's her. "What do we do with them?" He asks, dropping his gun into the makeshift holster of his pocket, safety clicked on. He's asking her because she always knows what to do and in this situation he needs it because he's still shaking and can't really form any fully functioning thoughts other than the facts around him, which is what his brain usually does.

"Take them into town with us. The children weren't addressed in the briefing." Erza says sharply, and he watches as she crouches down in front of a small girl and boy. "We'll take you to a safe place, okay?" Her voice is gentle and kind, much like the voice she used around him alone. She always acts so maternal when she needs to, and briefly an image crosses his mind with the children having bright red hair like hers and suddenly he's thinking about her as a mother and how great of one she'll be.

He can't let those thoughts continue, though, because he has to finish his mission. "I'm Gray," he tells an older boy who is clutching his sister's tiny hand, almost to the point of turning her fingers blue. He is trying to protect her, and Gray wonders if maybe he is at fault for killing his parents. Most likely. "I'll take you somewhere safe. Can I carry your sister? We have a far ways to walk." The boy narrows his eyes, but lets go of his sister's hand. Gray picks up the skinny child, holding her against his hip, much like how Erza was carrying two other toddlers. He starts walking back to the town that had hired the two mages, the soft pitter-patter of the impoverished village's youngest members' feet the only sound as they leave the aftermath of a dark guild's control.

* * *

He lays in bed, his hands folded on his stomach as he stares at the ceiling. He keeps seeing a horrified face behind his eyelids, the woman whom he'd shot through the heart because she was strangling him, and her form plagues his thoughts. He'd killed a woman who was carrying a second life, someone who was looking forward to caring and raising a person who'd hopefully become successful.

"You're not fooling anyone into thinking you're asleep," Erza says softly, emerging from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her body and another around her hair. She rubs the towel over her head brusquely before discarding it on the chair to the desk. "What's wrong?" He knows she can tell by his body language that he isn't in high spirits, and she probably realizes that he's still fully clothed.

He sits up and stretches, a light moan escaping his lips when his shoulder pops. "Today in general," he replies, falling over on his side. He was trying to be vague to avoid the question, but he knows it won't work. When it comes to Erza, it never works. After her pointed look of _be specific, please, or I might have to strangle the information out of you, _he elaborates further. "We killed people, Erza, people who weren't doing anything wrong."

"I know," she replied, a sad look taking over her expression. He hates it, because it usually comes with guild on his side since he can't prevent it from appearing. A lot of the time, the sad expression only appears when he'd around and he wonders, more often than he would like to admit, if it's just a coincidence. "But the town was too afraid to stand against their dark guild."

"It sounds like you're defending yourself," Gray told her as she turned around and dropped the towel around her body before exquipping into her pajamas. He realizes too late that what he said sounded terrible and rude and _dammit _he did the whole "inconsiderate" thing again. He made it sound like she wasn't feeling any guilt toward what had happened during the day when he knows was not the case. "And do you ever put your pajamas on like a regular person?" He tries to lighten the mood, even though he puts no heart into the jab.

"I guess I'm trying to rationalize what I did, even though it was completely wrong, and yes, just not ever around you." She quipped back, laying on her bed and facing him. Her jab had no heart either, which made him fee a little better. At least she understands that the first statement wasn't intentionally hurtful. "Yes, what did today was wrong, but what the guild did was worse." It was true, yes, but not all the people were involved with the dark guild. They could've questioned the people on whether they were associated with the guild or not.

"I guess you're right," Gray shrugs, not really wanting to banter over trivial things any longer, but wanting to get to the heart of the problem before it got too late. "But, that doesn't excuse my last mur - " He chokes on the word, feeling it make his tongue swell and stick to the roof of his mouth. _Murder. _He was a murderer. He considered killing innocent people _trivial things. _He had actually considered killing defenseless children earlier that day. He has become so many terrible things because of what his occupation made him do.

"It doesn't excuse any of them," She told him, rolling off her bed and crawling behind him on his bed. They hadn't been close like this in ages, not since they were younger. His brain wants to reject the warmth of her body, because he doesn't deserve it, but his body wants and feels like it _needs_ her there. He tries to ignore the fighting between the two by confiding his thoughts in the redhead nestled behind him, once she asks. He won't give away information she doesn't need to know. "The last woman, what was so different from all the others?" She finally asks softly, pressing her forehead into his shoulder.

"She was going to have a baby," he breathed, and felt her dig her forehead deeper into the shoulder-blade with a clenching horror. He feels his hands shake as he says the words, because by telling her he's confirming that it actually happened and wasn't just some delusion he could play off in his mind. Even if it was some delusion, he wasn't sure if he could fight it off alone. "I shot her through the heart, just because she was trying to protect herself."

Arms sneak their way around his waist and hold him tightly, trying to convey a wordless apology. He refuses to let his hands touch her in any way, because his conscious won't let him indulge in the act. Killing doesn't deserve a reward of a warm body sharing a bed with him. "Do you want me to stay?" She whispers, lips ghosting against the back of his neck. His brain is screaming for him to push her away because he wants to punish himself for killing the woman, but his body is telling him to allow her to stay because she's warm and her presence is comforting and makes him feel like he can make it without dying of guilt and doing something extremely idiotic.

"Only if you want," he replies, making sure his hands stayed firmly planted at his sides whereas hers tend to roam. She is allowed to touch him because he is punishing himself and she isn't. She understands that they had to do it and the guilt might be on her mind but it isn't plaguing her like his consciousness is doing to him. He won't punish her along with himself.

"A wise man once told me that if one is sacrificed, then a hundred can live. If we killed all those people, then at least we've guaranteed that thousands of people will live in safety," She whispers sometime through the night, her body having somehow slipped on top of his without his knowledge. He feels his arms stray from his sides as they wrap around her lithe body, because he was thankful that she knew exactly how to make him feel better. The guilt might not have been gone completely, but his hands don't feel as stained anymore.

* * *

A/N: Teil zwei means part two, just in case you were wondering.


	42. eulogy

A/N: hahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *breaks down sobbing*

* * *

The guild was a mess.

Cana was downing about double what she usually did. Macao and Wakaba were quiet and not chatting in their usual vulgar manners. Levy was sniffling with Gajeel absently petting her head, caught up in his own thoughts. Juvia had gone out to the ocean to cry.

And Erza sat at a table with Wendy on her lap, listening to the blunette cry. The knight wanted to join the small girl, because she was hurting too. Erza had her face nestled in Wendy's hair, holding her tightly as she refused to cry. Erza felt, rather than saw, Master Makarov approach her.

"Erza, I need to speak to you," the Master ordered, but his voice was gentle and soft. Without being asked, Wendy slipped off Erza's lap and crawled to Natsu, who was trying to console Lucy as well.

"Yes, Master?" Erza sighed, leaning against the table as he took a seat across from her. She was tired, both physically and mentally. She'd been holding back tears for hours, and she wanted to cry herself to sleep already.

"I know it's hard, but I'd like you to write his eulogy," Master said quietly, meeting her eyes sadly. "I think you knew a different side of him."

"I-I'll try," she stammered, and with a quick pat on her head, Master had left. Silently, she buried her face into her crossed arms. No one would come and rub her back when she was sad or even attempt to touch her anymore. She was Titania, something that had a bite much worse that its bark. No one would come close to her, except for Gray.

And now she had to write about his best qualities, the things that made him unique. She loved his bravery and his ability to follow his moral compass, even if it got him killed. He wasn't afraid of anything, not even her. He could love anyone who came into his life, even if they didn't want him to. He'd done so much to prove that he could care about anyone. He'd risked his life for her, for Lucy, for Natsu, for _every single one_ _of their nakama_ at least once.

And now he was gone. Dead. Would be six feet under in a matter of days. And she was so upset that she had never told him how important he was in her recovery from a broken heart. If he hadn't kept insisting on fighting her and hadn't accidentally found her crying on the riverbank, she would have never made the bonds with the guild. He had been instrumental to her growth as a person.

Ice could crack titanium, right? It could freeze over the metal and pry into the tiniest flaws in it, and after long enough the metal would break apart and there wouldn't be anything left. It would be open and exposed, but the ice would protect it and try to keep anything from breaking the shelter-less.

That was how she felt about him. That he had broken off her shell and made her who she was today. And she could never tell him that she was thankful for what she'd had with him because _she hadn't realized it until now._ She hadn't realized how big of a role he had played on her life, hadn't noticed that he had always been there and kept her safe when she couldn't do it herself.

She let out the tears that had been building for so long, a wail tearing from her throat as she sobbed. No one would hold her or try to console her because she needed him to do that and he wasn't there anymore and she felt so lonely. She was alone because he had been her closest friend and she no longer had that friend and she'd been left behind and all she could do was cry and wail and want him to hold her and tell her it was all okay.

Worst of all, she felt like a parent holding her might help things out. But she didn't have that _either_ and all she wanted to do was die so she could tell him that she loved him because she was certain that the feeling she had for the ice mage was just that: love. She loved the man who was always half-naked and threatening Natsu to a fight.

She fell over on the other chair at her table and hugged herself, trying to stop the tears but they wouldn't stop and she really just wanted to die from the guilt. It was worse than being stabbed or poisoned or held captive because she couldn't correct her errors. She'd messed up terribly. So very, very terribly.

She wore a black skirt with a black-pattered blouse. Her eyes were not red, her face was not blotchy, her cheeks were not rosy.

"Gray Fullbuster was a great man," she began, swallowing hard at the paper she'd scribbled out the night before. "He always put others before himself, and he always stood up for his moral beliefs, even if it meant that he might be killed for his decision.

"Best of all, he had perseverance," she continued, swallowing again. She had to keep the tears at bay. At least until the gravesite. Then she could bawl her eyes out. "When we were younger, he always challenged me to fight. Until one day, when he found me crying by myself. He asked me what was wrong, in a harsh tone which leaked concern. I told him that I wasn't comfortable around people, but he saw right through my lie, and asked me why I was crying _alone_ if I wasn't comfortable with people." She took a deep breath. "After that, he kept trying to befriend me. I hesitated at first, kept distancing myself from him, but he was so much like a damn leech that he wouldn't go away." She chuckled lightly. "So, after that, we started taking missions together, and we became friends.

"He was loyal and bold. The reason why I came back from Galuna Island so late is because he told me he had to help the people. I pointed my sword at him, and he didn't back down. In fact, he took the sword tip and pressed it to his chest. Who could kill someone with such determination?" She took another deep breath, hating that she had to do this.

"He was always willing to risk himself for his friends. He's probably saved every single one of you at least once, no? Myself included." She swallowed again, rocking back and forth on her feet. She would allow the guild insight on this, as to why she'll be blaming herself for a long time. "He saved my from myself. If Gray hadn't seen through my lie, I'd still be closed off with all of you like I was when I first came here. He was the one who convinced me that people weren't all bad, that I could trust people. He fixed my broken heart. And I never got to tell him thank you for that."

She grabbed her eulogy and stepped away from the podium, whispering a soft "I love you" into the paper.

She shivered when something cold touched her back and a quiet voice, full of pain and longing, whispered "I love you too."


	43. agreement

A/N: Sorry for the wait. My dad went out of town and kidnapped my laptop, so I couldn't update like I wanted to. I also broke my lacrosse stick. So. Here have some tennage-Grayza.

* * *

"Hey, Gray," she asks him as the lay side by side under the dark. Their hands are tucked under their heads, and their elbows touch. "I have a question."  
"Shoot," he says, watching as the first star appears in the night. He closes his eyes and wishes for happiness in the future, along with good luck. He needs a bit more of that, even if he's had two people enter his life who have made his life better recently. Can't have too much happiness, he tells himself, nor too much luck.  
"What do mages usually do if they're fighting and they can't make decisions in their right mind?" She asks, staring at the green leaves of the trees. She's always wondered how mages deal with losing their minds on missions. The breeze rustles the leaves and her hair, and she brushes the scarlet strands from her face behind her ear.  
"Well, usually they have someone to make decisions for them, despite what they say. Like, if someone wants their leg cut off because they have a bad leg wound, then it'd be up to their teammate to make the final call," Gray says with a shrug. "Why? You worried about losing your mind, Erza?"  
She extends her fist and catches Gray square in the jaw. "I was just wondering. Would you be willing to do that for me, if push comes to shove?"  
"Why the hell not? But you have to do the same for me." Gray nurses his jaw, but doesn't say anything; he knew she'd hit him for the comment.

* * *

That was why Gray refused to let Lyon cut her arm off. She wasn't thinking straight. There was another way. He couldn't let her lose that arm. She'd probably hate him and hit him and try to kill him for not stopping her because they'd made a deal, goddammit, and like hell would she ever let him live it down. She was supposed to always be number one, she was supposed to reach the top, she was supposed to become the Fairy Queen, and she couldn't do that if she only had one arm.  
The only thoughts that had run through his brain were 'have to save Erza, have to save Erza.' It didn't matter that Lyon could've killed him, didn't matter that her sword could've sliced right through him. All that mattered was that Erza would be safe.  
Erza's safety would always come before his own, and he knew the opposite was true, too. The pact they'd made bound them together, and neither of them were going to break it.


	44. disabled

A/N: Part Two of Names (chapter 11). I'm so sorry for the feels and whatever pain they may cause (lol no I'm not).

* * *

She ran her fingers along the edge of the bed as she sat up, experimentally moving one leg with her hands. She gingerly dropped her foot on the floor, feeling her hands clench as the foot didn't register the plush carpet or the coldness of said carpet.  
She was angry. She moved her other foot to the ground and lifted her body off the bed, only to have her face meet the floor. Again.  
"Erza-san, it's not going to work," Wendy sighed sadly, struggling to pick her up off the ground. Again. "At least your lungs are clearing."  
Lies, and Erza knew it. She'd heard the tearful conversation with Gray about the actual functionality of her lungs. The redhead appreciated the attempts at reassurance, but Erza knew what that she was dying because of something no one knew existed.  
Wendy claimed that her body cells were mutated. That they were hurting the other cells, causing her to lose ability to move her legs and making her less able to take in good air. The diagnosis had led to Gray storming off angrily into the forest, returning rather quickly for him, with their names in the wood. Back from years ago.  
"Erza-san, would you like the wheelchair?" Wendy asked, pulling the contraption that reminded her of her inability to move right closer to the bed. She huffed, but allowed Wendy to help her into the chair. "Gray-san came back today. He said something about paying me for caring for you while he was gone, but I don't think that's necessary," Wendy said as she pushed Erza down the hall and out the doors of Fairy Hills (Erza had to change rooms for easier access, and it made her even angrier. She, Gray and Master had fought over it for three days until Gray knocked her out and carried her to the new room. She was still angry about it).  
She was always feverish nowadays, coughing badly if she laughed too hard or anything of the sort. More recently, she'd started coughing up blood.  
"Erza-san, Levy-san and I have been researching things, and I think I know what's wrong with you," Wendy said as she wheeled her into the guild. "Something happened with your body and your cells mutated."  
"Really?" Erza was curious now. "How so?" She was wondering if this was reversible and if she could go back to going on missions with her team and not feel so useless.  
"I'm not sure of the reasons, but I'm sure that these affected cells are damaging your good ones. Some of the bad cells must've attached themselves to your spinal cord and your lungs." Wendy stopped moving the chair and knelt in front of her, catching Erza by surprise. "Erza-san, I don't like saying this, but you're not going to live much longer. Your lungs are mainly empty right now, but eventually you're going to suffocate on your own blood." Wendy wouldn't meet her eyes. "I've already told Gray-san about it."  
"Thank you, Wendy," Erza said flatly, subconsciously swallowing hard so she wouldn't cough. "Are you going to take a job? I think you deserve it. I've been a terrible patient."  
"Nonsense, Erza-san," the young teenager scolded, shocking Erza a bit as her usual chipper mood seemed to return to the blunette. "You've been a great patient. Maybe I'll take something easy." Wendy wheeled her into the guild, having recovered her smile and greeting everyone in the guild. Erza greeted everyone without enthusiasm, trying to keep her mind blank. "Hello, Gray-san. Please keep Erza-san out of trouble," Wendy smiled weakly before dashing off to the request board.  
"Morning, Erza," Gray yawned, letting Erza wheel herself through the guild.  
"Good morning, Gray," she replied, and one look at his somber expression made her finally digest the words that Wendy had said. She was going to die. There wasn't an 'if' about it. It was going to happen, and she'd leave behind her team and her guild and the people who she treated as family. She'd leave them mourning her, wishing she hadn't choked on her own blood in the middle of the night. She'd leave Gray to keep out of trouble, leave Natsu to not accidentally burn down the guild, leave Lucy to keep an eye on the two incompetent males, leave Wendy -  
She felt tears start to well up in her eyes. She didn't want to leave anyone, but the small blunette didn't need left behind. She had already experienced so much heartache, and she didn't need more.  
She felt arms wrap around her, jerking her out her thoughts, and she was picked up out of the chair and placed in a lap, a chin resting on her shoulder as he held her. "I'm so sorry," Gray whispered thickly. "Is there anything you want to do?" She tucked her face into his neck and sniffled a few times, holding back the tears.  
"I want everyone to know that I love them," she managed, letting the tears fall.  
Maybe she _was_ afraid of death.


	45. the end

A/N: Sorry about this. Actually, not really because I live to torture you all. :3

* * *

Erza busied herself during the day, spending times with everyone in the guild.

She went shopping with Lucy, where the two picked out cute dresses. She went to him afterwards and said she wanted buried in the pink one that Lucy had picked out for her.

She took Wendy out to a spa, and when they came back, they both looked adorable with their hair in matching French braids and almost-glowing skin and nicely done nails. Not that Gray had noticed, really. Not until she pointed it out. Both girls had really enjoyed it; he could tell because Wendy was bouncing up and down excitedly for the rest of the day and he knew Erza was tempted to join her.

She took Natsu out to lunch, letting him eat to his heart's content. She tried to eat the salad and a slice of cake, but she got sick afterwards. She told Gray afterwards she wanted strawberry shortcake as the funeral cake.

Time was spent with Mira, talking about memories of younger teenage years of fighting and hating each other.

She painted with Reedus, ate with Jet and Droy (even if she threw it up later because her stomach couldn't handle food well anymore), played cards with Cana and Wakaba, babysat Asuka, hung out and played games with Romeo, arm-wrestled with Elfman (Gray was impressed that she had won), talked makeup with Evergreen, chatted with Levy about some books she'd read recently, talked about her armor and how scrappy most of today's was with Gajeel.

And any time in between that was spent with him. Because he was the one who recorded how much blood she coughed up every day. He took her temperature twice a day, making sure that she wasn't peaking over 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, because Celsius frustrated Wendy). He kept her warm at night, holding her closely and making sure that she actually slept. He soothed her back to sleep when she had the nightmare of choking on her own blood, telling her that it wouldn't happen for a while.

He wasn't able to do anything to help her though. She had to do this all by herself. She must've felt so alone, even if he slept in her bed and stayed by her side whenever she wasn't proving the amount of care she had for someone. She was miserable and tired and looked almost dead, but she was pushing herself until the end. He told her she should take it easier, but she was stubborn and never listened to what he said in regards to her health. So he just stayed by her side when she needed him.

And he was there when she actually did choke on that blood with her eyes pleading and in pain. He watched as she tried to empty it all but it was too thick and she stopped breathing and nothing was working to get her heart to start again. He had been the one to squeeze her chest after she couldn't be brought back and he got all the blood out of her nose and mouth before cleaning up her face and closing her eyelids all while crying and shaking. He had carried her body into the guild not caring that his face was splotchy and his eyes bloodshot because she was dead now and no one could ever replace her and his thoughts had been running in a continuous line, not once stopping at all.

He had felt so helpless, running through the rain to proffer her body to the guild. He hated watching as Wendy collapsed against Gajeel, who had just been sitting there next to her. Levy leaned against the iron dragon slayer's other shoulder, silently crying as opposed to Wendy's loud sobs. Lucy also started crying, which broke his heart even further because Lucy was his nakama as well and watching her cry was about as painful as these things get.

Because, in the end, everyone cries about the fall of a comrade. But as well, everyone moves on, even if it takes years upon years to recover.

Because the end is really just a new beginning.

* * *

Next chapter will be fluffy, I promise.


	46. titania and mariokart do not mix

A/N: Can I just say that...

1. This morning's chapter made me bawl like a baby as I chatted it over with some of my friends

2. I hate Koopa Troopa with a burning passion

3. I present... FLUFFY GRAYZA! Because the past, like, four chapters have been dripping angst. Because I know how much you guys love that stuff :)

* * *

A smile tugged at his lips as he carried the box into his house, dropping it haphazardly on the floor in front of the television lacrima set up on his wall.

"They're gonna love this," he cackled to himself.

* * *

"We're having a meeting at my place later," Gray told Natsu and Lucy. She looked at him curiously, while he just shrugged and continued eating his fire food. Gray knew that the mention of a meeting would catch Erza's ears relatively quickly, because for some reason she was always able to hear him.

"When is 'later'?" Erza questioned, materializing beside him. "If there is a meeting with Team Natsu, then I must be there. Just to keep the peace, as we all know Lucy cannot keep you and Natsu from killing each other."

"I'm going to ignore the obvious dig at my person and tell you that you can show up whenever."

"We should just come over now," Lucy offered. "The sooner, the better, right?"

They had no clue what they were getting into. Gray smirked, trying to hide his obvious glee at Lucy's suggestion. "Sure. I don't care," he shrugged.

"What's the meeting even about? Why can't we talk about it here, you snowflake?" Natsu asked, his mouth full of food.

"It's a secret, you flameball," Gray rolled his eyes. "So, come on, we're going to my place."

"Gray, your shirt," Erza scoffed. He scowled at her after he looked around for the lost shirt. He decided that his house would probably be in shambles by the end of the day.

* * *

Erza liked surprises. This particular surprise was one of the best she's had in a while. She wasn't expecting Gray to invite them over to play video games. She had a soft spot for these things.

"Woohoo! You got MarioKart!" Natsu jumped around, taking a remote from the bag that sat on Gray's coffee table before plopping on the couch. Erza looked at a tossed-aside box and realized that yes, Gray had gotten a racing game. "This'll be so awesome!" Natsu yelled, and Erza couldn't help but agree.

"Aye, sir!" Happy added unnecessarily.

"We should probably move that," Lucy said hesitantly, pointing to the glass coffee table in the middle of the room. Gray nodded in agreement and pushed it into a separate room. At least Gray respected his furniture at home. "Natsu, sit down!" Lucy scolded.

Erza smirked at how the Dragonslayer plopped on the couch with a pout on his face. Lucy had a good hold over Natsu, which made the swordswoman's life easier. She could focus on trying to keep Gray under control, which was more difficult than she let on. She wouldn't trade the job for anything, though.

"Let's go ahead and get started, then," Gray said, tossing remotes at both her and Lucy. Erza sat on the floor, back pressed against the bottom of the couch, where Lucy sat between Gray and Natsu. Erza felt pity for the blonde, because she'd probably go deaf from the amount of yelling that would occur during the length of their gaming.

She watched as Gray set them up for an 8-course, randomly selected course set at 100cc, with CPUs playing against them. This wouldn't be too hard, she decided, picking out her character. She smiled when she saw Lucy pick Peach, since Peach was relatively similar to the stellar mage. What made her grin, though, was that Natsu picked Mario. He usually went for Bowser when they played at the arcade in town. Erza herself wanted to pick Rosalina, but Gray hadn't had the game that long and she wasn't unlocked yet, so she picked Toad.

She could feel adrenaline building in her veins as the little cloud started counting down. She loved competitive games like this, because it was almost as intense as an actual battle. She loved getting into serious races with her male comrades because they took it just as seriously as she did.

"Who picked the damned mushroom level?" Gray swore as he fell off the course, causing Natsu to laugh hysterically. Erza chuckled as she jumped to first place easily. "I swear, they just keep shoving me off the course!"

"Uh, guys? How do you drive?" Lucy asked helplessly, and Erza risked a pitying glance at the poor blonde.

"Happy, you drive for me, I gotta show Lucy how to play," Natsu tossed his remote at the cat, who caught the remote and continued on with ease. Erza heard the shifting of bodies and a squeak from Lucy, so Erza assumed that Natsu had lifted the blonde into his lap to help her.

Erza glared at the screen as Koopa Troopa cut her off and took first from her at the _very last second._ "Gray, did you see that? He took first place from me!" She yelled, glaring at the second place spot she had. "Vengeance shall be mine!" It was _on, _the ignorant little turtle... thing.

"Erza, it's just a game," Lucy suggested, which had the redhead whirling around to glare at her.

"It is not just a game! It is a hit on my pride if I lose to a turtle! As Erza Scarlet, I cannot allow myself to lose to Koopa Troopa!" She declared loudly, making sure her point was known. Erza Scarlet _did not lose._ It was a fact.

"I'll help you with the next course, Luce." Erza heard Natsu say as they prepared for the next course, which was Coconut Mall.

"I don't like this one," Happy said as they started. "Malls don't even look like this!"

"Shh, Happy, you're ruining my concentration," Erza hissed as she threw a red shell at Koopa Troopa. "Take that, you stupid turtle - _Oh hell no. _Did you see that? Someone threw a spiky blue thing at me!"

"Haha, Erza, you're gettin' rusty! That's what you get for taking those jobs instead of going into town with us!" Natsu laughed, and she swore as he cut in front of her, shoving her to fourth place behind both Gray, him and Koopa Troopa.

She grinned when she got three mushrooms, zooming past the boys and the turtle, only to be targeted for a blue shell again. "Are you serious?" She yelled as she blew up again. She tried to catch up, but Koopa Troopa beat her yet again, and by a millisecond. "I will remove his yellow turtle head from that idiotic green shell and place his horrified expression upon a place of honor. Never forget!" she yelled angrily, and if it had been anyone else in her presence, they would have run away in fear at the knight's reaction. But since this was Natsu, Gray, and Lucy, they just sighed and shook their heads at her over-reaction.

"Geez, Erza," Gray shook his head. "It's really just a game. He's not trying to dishonor you."

"Did you not see that smirk on his ridiculous turtle beak? He was too pleased to defeat me!" She fumed, pouting like a child.

"Erza, you really shouldn't get worked up over this stuff," Lucy said meekly. "It _is_ just a game."

Erza fumed silently. Why didn't anyone understand? She had to win! It was in her blood to be competitive!

"Let Erza be. Come on, Natsu, I bet I'll beat you for second place!" Gray shot her a small smile before starting the next race. She smiled back, vowing that she would take the turtle's head.

* * *

"Where's Erza?" Someone questioned as Gray sipped at his ale. "I haven't seen her at all this week."

"Did she take a mission?" Someone questioned back.

"Sorry, she's not in the books as on a mission," Mira hollered from the bar. "Now that I think about it... I haven't seen her at the dorms, either."

Gray shook his head. "She'll turn up when she wants to. Maybe she treated herself to a visit to the spa or something?" He wouldn't blame her of she had; it'd been an odd week to say the least. He had taken a fairly easy job for about three days, and had just stopped by the guild to get a mug of beer before heading home to his warm bed. He polished off the rest of his mug and tossed it to the barmaid, who caught it with ease.

Mira smiled weakly. "I guess she will. Night, Gray."

"See you tomorrow," Gray tossed his hand back as he left the guild and headed for his small home.

Gray liked his house. He'd had it for a few years, furnishing it occasionally when he had some extra money (and wasn't paying Mira for guild repairs that were most definitely _not_ his fault). He liked the coffee table that sat in the living room, the overly-stuffed couch that sat in front of the television lacrima. His favorite part was the king-sized bed that he had in his bedroom. Perfect for tossing around at night like he so often did. And maybe he and Natsu had crashed at his place once and shared the bed. Far away from each other, mind you!

Gray was expecting to drop his bag by the front door, strip down to his boxers and crawl into bed. What he was not expecting was that he would find Erza Scarlet asleep on his floor, a game controller in her hands with the lacrima on the wall humming with music, saying that the connection had been lost with the controller. He stared at her for a moment, taking in how calm she looked and how she didn't look like she wanted to kill something.

She blearily sat up, rubbing her eyes. He felt his face flush when he realized her blouse had unbuttoned as she slept, and he was unable to meet her drowsy gaze seriously. "Gray? Iss dat you?" She questioned. He steeled his nerves and met her eyes.

"I'm pretty sure no one else has a key to my house," he replied sassily. He then frowned, a question forming in his brain. "How did you get in here?" She shook her head groggily and pointed to an open window. "Well, that explains it, but why?"

"Wanted ta beat the damn turtle," she slurred sleepily. "Completed three a the four licenses." Her head hit her chest, and he sighed. There was no way he could get her to Fairy Hills in this state. He crouched in front of her, where she sat snoring against the base of the couch, slung her arms around his neck and looped his arms behind her knees. "Whatcha doin'?" She slurred, as though she'd drugged herself. Her ear rested on his shoulder, and he was surprised at how light she was. She couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and twenty pounds.

"Putting you to bed. When was the last time you slept?" He said, carrying her to his bed and setting her on the side he usually slept on.

"I've been up for... Four days? Yeah, that sounds right. Hey, where are you going?" She sounded more coherent as he grabbed a pillow and headed into the living room.

"Sleeping on the couch," he told her, before closing the door to his room.

"If anyone's sleeping on the couch, it'd be me," she yelled through the door, and he rolled his eyes at her stubbornness. "I imposed, after all," she threw the door open and used the doorframe as a support.

"You're my guest," he replied, feeling anxious. He knew she'd somehow coerce him into getting back in his bed, some way or another, just because she was _Erza_ and he was about as whipped as any man could be for the woman.

"Your _uninvited_ guest," she said, stepping away from the door. He sighed. "Just sleep on the bed, Gray. I'll be okay on the couch."

He watched as she curled up on the couch, holding his favorite pillow close to her chest, and he made sure that after she - nearly instantly - fell asleep, he draped a blanket over her, since he kept his house cold.

Gray went back to his room, making sure to keep the door open just in case she needed something. He pulled the blankets over himself and fell into a light slumber.

That is, until he heard a yelp and running feet slapping across the tile of his kitchen. He assumed it was Erza diving into his bed and clutching him, since he'd locked the doors.

"I hate turtles," she ground out after a few minutes. He stroked her hair, trying to calm her from the obvious nightmares.

"Did Koopa Troopa try to take his revenge?" He asked jokingly, but he felt himself shrink when she glared at him.

"Not funny, Gray," she scolded, face pressed against his neck. "He had Dry Bowser with him too. It... It was like Koopa Troopa was in charge, and all the characters were coming to kill me. I was also in my little jumpsuit outfit, and I couldn't requip."

He knew the unspoken fear that sat there. If she couldn't requip, she was all bark and no bite. She couldn't fight back.

"Well, I'm here to fight them off. Okay? So, get some sleep. You haven't slept in...?" He left the question hanging in the air for her to answer.

"Approximately 96 hours," she answered, as though it was nothing. "Thank you, Gray."

"Any time," he replied, feeling comfortable with her in his arms.


	47. arms

A/N: Fluffy young!Grayza. Because Erza wasn't held enough as an adolescent.

* * *

If someone would have told her that the pervert who always challenged her to fight when she first came to the guild would be her closest friend, she would've laughed at them.

She was never one to let people into her life easily. He picked and prodded at her, getting under her skin until she learned to accept that there was no way that the ice mage would leave her life.

Their personalities contrasted majorly, her being a responsible, mature girl who took nonsense from no one, while he was an immature, irresponsible idiot who had a tendency to start fights with another immature idiot who she loved like a brother. Yet, the two were able to complement each other perfectly. She was able to tolerate his occasional immaturity and they were actually able to hold intelligent conversation, unlike the salmon-haired boy. As her affection for the ice mage grew, so did her ability to mock-tease him and chase him around in a playful manner.

It was the first time that he put his arms around her that she really knew how much she cared about Gray. It had been a cold November day, and the two had gone on a mission in the mountains.

"You're cold," he said, and she glared at him. He could've read the glare as "Yes, you nimrod," or "Yes, and you're not helping."

Gray decided to read it as the latter and threw his coat at her. "There you go, Erza."

She gave him a small smile, one of the ones she reserved only for him, and put it on, reveling in the warmth it held from his body and the way it smelled like him. He turned around to walk backwards, and she watched as his eyes widened and a deep rumbling sound started. "Crap crap crap," he rattled off, before his eyes lit up for a second.

He tackled her to the ground, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "What're you doi -" she asked desperately, her voice strained due to their proximity.

"Avalanche. You'll freeze if you're alone," Gray had to yell over the sound of the rolling snow. "It'll be dark in three, two, one," and as soon as the word left his mouth, they were covered with the frozen flakes.

"Aren't you cold?" She cocked her head to the side a bit. He shrugged and rolled to his side, taking her with him. She squeaked a bit, trying to calm her heart. _Just Gray, _she told herself. _It is just Gray and we're cuddling for warmth. Not because he likes me. _

"Not really. I'm used to the cold. It only took a few bouts of pneumonia and about a million colds," he chuckled, and she could feel it echo in his chest. "Well, since I'm sapping your body heat, you should try to use mine." She tried not to squeak as he took her arms and placed them around himself. She tightened the slack grip she had on him, and how comfortable it felt. They fit together as one, their arms around each other. It was the best feeling in the world, being held like a treasure, and she never wanted it to end.

"You look happy," he acknowledged. At her questioning look, a light blush dusted his cheeks and he continued. "Well, happier than usual. Your eyes lost that hard look they have, and you were smiling."

Should she go and tell him? Or should she keep it to herself? "I've never been held like this." She said quietly, lowering her eyes so she didn't have to see the pitying glance he'd give her. "It's comfortable."

"Well, only if you don't beat me up for the offer, I could do it more," he shrugged impassively.

"Okay," she said, closing her eyes and holding him tighter. "I won't beat you up if you 'happen to be in the neighborhood' and sneak into my room." His warmth was making her drowsy, and she felt incredibly tired suddenly.

"Sounds good," he replied, reciprocating the tight hold.

She could get used to this.


	48. i'll always love you

A/N: This is sorta relative to April Fools Day, I guess. First person, over-protective Gray is too much fun to write. :3 I'm glad all you guys are back to reviewing! I've gotten eight reviews, which is a lot for me! And five of those have been since yesterday! Thanks so much! :D (Now to go back to writing a reflection paper... Ew.)

* * *

I had told her I'd always be there, promised her that I'd always be her back-up, assured her that I love her.

I don't think she believed me.

If she had, she wouldn't be gallivanting around with that blue-haired pain-in-the-ass. I watch her leave every night to eat dinner with him, almost like clockwork, and every night she ends up coming to my place in tears because their relationship hurts her so much but she can't find a good reason to leave.

Even though I tell her every night that crying is reason enough, she doesn't listen and does the same thing every damn night and it makes me angry that she's purposely hurting herself like this.

So, I sit in my house, and surely enough her red hair streams behind her as she runs to my door, opening it because she knows I'm home and waiting for her to crawl into my arms.

And it hurts when she catapults into me as always, because I can't do anything to stop the tears and the emotional struggle she's putting herself through. And when she looks at me with that slap mark on her cheek, a deep possessive anger boils in my stomach and I swear to her I'll kill him for hurting her. If he really loved her, he wouldn't hit her.

I'd never hit her. No one who truly respected her would dare hit her.

I've known her since before she was Titania. I've seen her with her walls down, watched her build the armor around her heart that he so easily tore down. He knew the effect he had on her and manipulated her, and maybe he hadn't meant to hit her but that was all irrelevant because I'm seething and about to kill something.

She's mine, whether she knows it or not, and if you hurt her emotionally, you deal with me.

I carry her to my bed and lay her down as I contemplate the best ways to kill someone on the couch. If I do it in an unregistered boat in international seas, the boat can't be traced to anywhere and I won't be found out. Or I could bury him in the cemetery. Or acid. Acid is always an option.

While I'm stuck in my thoughts, I feel her curl up next to me and rest her head on my shoulder. She tells me that she's cleared the skeletons in her closet now and she has no regrets anymore. And then I'm pressed flat on my back as her lips assault me and I can't form a single coherent though because her tear-stained face is attacking mine and _it's so much better than I've imagined._

So, she believed me. She believed every word I said and trusted me and she just needed to make room for a fresh start.

Which I am perfectly okay with.


	49. ignore

A/N: I mustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later.

* * *

It was what she did best.

"Erza, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to break your nose."

"Erza, I swear, it's not my fault your underwear caught on fire!"

"See, there's a funny story to why there's a dead body in your fridge..."

"I told him not to flush the fish down your toilet!"

It was at times like these when Erza learned to just ignore Gray and let him ramble on about whatever he was talking about and trying to explain why something was messed up.

"Erza, I'm really, really, really sorry, but I might've accidentally exploded your magic wardrobe?"

However, this was a story she needed to hear. Or, that she faked that she wanted to hear it. Because, honestly, if no one died, she'd be okay. SHe just liked scaring the poor ice mage.

"You what?" She used a scarily flat tone, her eyes expressing sheer anger, and she had to hold back a laugh at the terrified expression on his face. She could fix her closet easily; she broke it on a regular basis.

"Well, see, I was trying to see if Romeo could control an ice-fire, because that would be cool, you know? And it turns out he can, but it's a highly explosive fire."

"And why were you using my closet? And how the hell do you even _use_ my closet?" Erza asked, her stern voice leaking a bit of curiosity.

"Well, it takes less to fix your closet than the whole guild..." Gray said meekly, not meeting her eyes.

"You're an idiot," she muttered affectionately, rubbing her nose against his. "I want a whole weeks worth of endless strawberry cake as punishment."

"Okay," he sighed.

She grinned. Maybe she should listen to him more when he told these stories.


	50. trapped

A/N: Because women can get just as needy as men.

* * *

Sometimes, Erza really hated her sense of timing.

"I'm coming in," she yelled, because she really had to go to the bathroom and he was taking too long to shower. She'd seen him naked before, so it wasn't really a big deal.

Or at least it wouldn't have been if they were still awkward preteens who quarreled over every little thing. But now that she's twenty, and he's nineteen, it's not really as innocent as it might've been before.

And as soon as she was in the bathroom, she heard the knob on the bathroom click, so it was locked. From the outside. And that was when she decided that everything in the world was screwy that day.

"What was that?" Gray asked, shutting off the water. A towel was around his waist when he stepped out of the shower, spiky hair still glistening and his muscular torso was dusted with little droplets of moisture. She hadn't seen him fresh out of the shower in a while, and it wasn't doing much for her self-control. She had a rough enough time trying to keep from flinging herself at him and telling him she was going to have his children and that was that. And the terrible thing was, she could do that at any time and he'd most likely comply.

"Ah, the door got locked," Erza stammered anxiously. The bathroom was small and she could feel her body heat creeping upwards because of the tight space. He grabbed her shoulders and angled her so he could squeeze by her to check the door, and just the light touch had her heart beating dangerously fast.

"Shoot, it really is locked," Gray said, shaking the doorknob roughly. "Looks like we're stuck."

She would've sighed and plopped down on the lid of the toilet if it had been Natsu or some other male in the guild. But this was Gray, who was decidedly more attractive, kind, and gentle than the other men of Fairy Tail. At least in her opinion he was. And she'd known him longer than she'd known everyone else in the guild. So, naturally, like any other girl who was trapped in a small room with a male she found significantly alluring, she stood rooted to the spot, fear paralyzing her to where she stood right next to him. "You okay? You look like someone just stepped on your cake." He smirked at her, and that smirk was enough to almost push her over the edge.

"I-I'm f-fine," she stammered, screaming internally at her stutter. This was Gray! She wasn't attracted to him at all! She shook her head, trying to rid her brain of what she could do to him, how he might use his magic to cool the air around them if he got too over heated -

She was already stressed enough and didn't need the hormones running through her body that made her want him right there! "You don't look alright," he said, moving in front of her and dropping his smirk. He leaned in close to her face and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, "You're really hot. Maybe you should take a shower, too."

Yes! Cold shower, cold shower, it sounded good to help calm her nerves and maybe her hormones as well. But then the thought that he'd just taken a shower in there, used the soap and shampoo she'd be using caused her panic to flare and she just couldn't control herself.

She blamed the steam and the heat of the room and the fact that he'd grown up so incredibly well. It hadn't been hard, really; since his face was so close already she just had to wrap her hands behind his neck and pull his lips to hers. This was what she had wanted for so many years, but she'd been able to control it and now she made her intentions solid. He made a strangled sound in the back of his throat but greedily kissed her back, causing her to gasp against him but not breaking their contact.

And to ruin their moment, the door clicked open and the sound of a body falling to the ground caused them to break apart hastily, meeting the shocked faces of some of the members of the guild who just so happened to be in the area. Master Makarov was passed out on the floor. Erza felt her face flame in shame, but it couldn't be helped. As Cana said, "when you get the itch, you gotta take care of it."

And speaking of the Card mage, she was harassing a poor Dragon Slayer into paying off a lost bet. "Pay up, Wendy. Told you they'd be eating each other's faces off." Cana laughed as the small blunette gave the older woman a handful of coins. Erza sighed and scratched the back of her neck, much like Gray was. They had a lot of explaining to do, whether they wanted to or not.


	51. importance

A/N: More fluff. Next chapter might be more angst. And yay for being on sick leave!

* * *

She hates admitting it, but he's definitely important to her.

"Erza, did you eat yet?" He asks, staring at the armored woman suspiciously. She sighs heavily, realizing that she'd been too caught up in digging up information to eat something for breakfast. "Geez, you can't even take five minutes to go and get food from the bar downstairs? I'll bring you back something," he offers, clapping her shoulder and heading off to bring back food for the mage.

He's always there for her, to make sure she's in tip-top shape and even offers to spar with her so she doesn't lose her touch. She hit him for things that weren't his fault, but he'd come right up to her afterwards and put bandages on her wounds.

She sets the tourism book back down on the table and digs through his bag, pulling his shirt from yesterday to her face. She inhales its musky, mint-touched Gray smell, the same smell that had only increased in strength over the years. The same comforting smell she'd memorized since she was a young girl, as she had a tendency to sit on him when she beat him in battles, and somehow she was always able to prevent the blush that threatened to appear when she caught scent of fresh water and strong mint. Nothing smelled better, in her opinion, not even her own shampoo (which was what she told her nakama her favorite smell was).

She stuffs the shirt back in his bag after getting enough of his scent to last her for a while. She flops back on the bed in the room they shared (it was cheaper this way, and she was low on Jewel. He was Jewel-less) and reads more of the information.

"I underlined what should be important while you slept on the train," he says after reappearing with four plates of food. He sets one on her bed before taking the other three to his bed and digging in. She inspects her plate, finding a few strawberries on top of a pile of freshly-made pancakes. "I'll take the book if you don't eat right now. You didn't eat lunch yesterday and you slept through dinner. You have to be hungry."

She flips the book over and puts the plate on her lap as she cuts into the pancakes with her plastic fork. "You knew what to get me."

"You eat everything with strawberries. It's not that hard to guess what you'd like," he replies with his mouth stuffed full of his own pancakes. She smiles gratefully at him.

"Thank you." She takes a bite of the pancakes, which taste pretty good for being free, and eats one of the strawberries. She is truly grateful for having the ice mage with her on this mission.

* * *

"Eat ice, monster!" Gray yells as Erza stabs it through a chink in its armor. She feels as though the comment is stupid and pointless but it's so _him _that she can't help but feel her heart flutter. Gray was the distraction as she went in for the kill.

It falls to the ground heavily, pinning Erza under it, as she stabbed it through the throat and it fell forward. Gray smirks as he pulls on her arms to get her out from under the monster, another perk to having a partner. She catches wind of his intoxicating smell, and closes her eyes as she pulls herself out from under the monster with his assistance.

He's always there to help her. It doesn't matter what she asks him to do; he'll do it thoroughly and to the best of his ability, almost as if he owes her something. She could be trapped in a basement as a hostage, and he'd travel hundreds of miles to fetch her and do as she ordered.

"Thanks, Gray," she says offhandedly as she tries to stand up, only to be unable to. Her legs crumple beneath her, and she cries out when her jaw connects harshly with the rest of her head and she accidentally bites through the tip of her tongue.

"Erza! Are you okay?" He asks, his voice taking on a worried tone. Another reason why he's important to her, is because of his ability to fawn over her due to injuries. He grabs her wrist and pulls her up, only to have her fall into his body. "Well, that didn't work." He picks her off the ground and carries her bridal-style. She takes the chance to breathe in his calming, relaxing scent that could be used as sedative.

"I can't feel my legs," she realizes, her blood freezing in her veins. She tries to keep her breathing regulated, but it starts racing and she can't reign it in. She's panicking. She can't walk. She could be permanently disabled. She closes her eyes and tries to take deep breaths, tries to calm her racing heart, but all that's floating through her brain is her inability to move from the hips down.

She is placed on the ground and her hand is pressed to Gray's bare chest, where she feels his steady, slow heartbeat. "Feel this? Try to match it. Don't jump to conclusions yet. It's probably just temporary."

She nods and takes deep breaths, thankful that someone could talk sense into her prone-to-internal-panic brain. "Okay," she breathes heavily. "It is temporary. I will be able to walk after we get home."

"There you go," he smiles and picks her back up, carrying her back into the city where their hotel room was waiting. He sets her in the bed she'd deemed her own before stripping out of his (remaining) clothes and joining her.

She pulls herself closer to the ice mage after he falls into a deep sleep, his snoring patterned to be relaxing to the exquip mage as she curls up next to him, her arm experimentally draped over his chest. She cuddles closer to him, relishing the warmth he gives off. Yes, he is important, because he is willing to take care of her when she cannot take care of herself.


	52. the past

A/N: Not sorry at all. I'm really proud of this, because it ties into chapter 18 (Holding Hands) and I just really really love first person Erza.

* * *

He doesn't want to do this. He can't go through her things. What was Gramps thinking, sending him to clean up the rooms? It would take him forever, and he would be living in the past the whole time.

He opens the first locked door with the key he was given, only to find the smell of cherries and Erza. She wouldn't come back.

He bites his lip before opening the first door in the room and throwing the contents on the floor. The fresh smell of the towels assaulted him, but everything she ever encountered smelled like cherries, and these pieces of cloth were no different. He starts humming as he makes a pile of the nicer ones to keep for himself.

He moves onto the next door, finding her closet. Her bed is meticulously made in the corner by the window, and the small kitchenette had been raided by Mira the day before the news of the Titania's fall had been learned. He skims through her clothes and tosses a set of blouse and skirt on his pile, just because he can and maybe he'll give the set to Wendy. Because he doubts he'll have his own children, especially now.

He strips the bedroom of its furnishings, deciding to come back to the closet later, even though there are few possessions in the room itself; just bed sheets and the occasional knick knack which he tosses (gently; he doesn't want to break one of the few things he can keep of the woman) into the keep pile. The bathroom has the numerous bottles tossed into a box and left in the hallway for the girls to take as they please. Gray catches Levy sneaking a bottle of violent pink shampoo and crying quietly when he takes the trash out and passes the box.

She'd loved him. They'd been together for a few months, and he'd gotten to hold her plenty of times, but not enough. It would've never been enough. The woman was brave and bold and beautiful and graceful but so cold to anyone who tried to tried to get near her. Much like her name suggested, she was titanium.

But ice wasn't afraid to touch metal. Ice wasn't affected by the cold. Maybe that's why he'd persisted through all her abuse. Because he could handle the cold. As ice, he was responsible for bonding with her. He was the one who was supposed to break her shell. And he was pretty sure he'd succeeded.

She had made friends after him. She started asking Levy to lend her books, spend her afternoons with Mira and Cana talking about girl things, and even _went shopping_ with these girls. They had implanted the urge to be a girl in her, and he was thankful. He'd just steered her in the right direction.

Now to tackle the closet, which was stuffed (orderly, because she hated disorderly places) full of miscellaneous outfits. Some look like they haven't been worn before, whereas others look heavily worn and beat up. He tosses the newer things on the floor and decides that he'll let Cana and Mira shuffle through them later. He finds a cream-colored halter dress that makes him remember the first time they'd done anything remotely romantic together. He clutches the dress to his chest in memory of the confessions and the feeling of her walking next to him in the dress that had swished against his legs and he had ached to touch the fabric then but now that he could, it wasn't the same because she wasn't in it like he'd hoped that she would have been.

The pile of shoes under the hanging clothes shocks him, because they aren't orderly and there are so many different pairs that he guesses that Erza couldn't care less about the contraptions. He rummages through them, trying to see what might be there, when a leather-bound book catches his attention. It's small, but when he opens it he finds her elegant script written on the lined pages.

_September 7th, X781_

_I'm buzzing still. Mira gave - threw at - me this journal earlier so I could "keep track" of my "romantic advancements." Her tone was extremely mocking, but I hit her over the head with it and took it back with me to the dorm. I'm glad that I have somewhere to write the events of tonight, even if the reasons of why I have it are stupid and Mira-influenced._

_Gray took me out on a "date" earlier this evening to see this action-filled, somewhat-sappy romance film. It was a good movie. But what made it even better was that he bought me Skittles and a root beer without even needing clarification. He knows me better than I thought he did._

_And he touched my hand. He was probably trying to hold it, and I might've let him, but Natsu had to show up and ruin _everything. _Gray tried his best to keep calm, but you could see his anger at being interrupted. I'd like to assume that it was one of the older guild members that sent him to keep an eye on us after my idiotic outburst. Oddly enough, Gray didn't comment on my stupid statement, like I had expected him to. He was really mature about the whole date, except when he asked me to go with him. _

_I feel like an awkward schoolgirl, rambling on and on about a date that was slightly successful. But maybe that's all I really am inside._

_I should probably let him down gently. I'd love to be his girlfriend, because he's such an adorably awkward boy, but I have to be stronger. Stronger to protect him, along with everyone else. A boy would just get in my way. That's probably what I'll say, too. "You'll get in my way, idiot." Being indifferent should turn a guy off, right?_

_Oh, who am I kidding? Gray seems attracted to my abusive tendencies. He has the traits of a masochist. Maybe he is._

_September 8th, x781_

_We made a compromise. I don't know how, but we did and I think I can live up to it. Six years isn't that long, right? Six years will go by quickly. Maybe something exciting will happen in a few years and we'll end up beating up bad guys and we'll have to save each other. Hasn't stopped us in the past._

_In six years, when I am twenty-two, if he's still interested, and I'm still interested, too - but who wouldn't be? He's smart and brave and has a nice body, that I _so_ haven't noticed or anything - we'll go on an official date. Something where he can hold my hand without fear of being killed or interrupted or rejected. _

_His hands were cold on my hips when we came to this agreement. My hands were around his neck. We could've kissed, but that wouldn't have helped the mood, and I find it endearing that he didn't do anything. He is always the gentleman. _

_September 7th, x782_

_Today he ruffled my hair, touched my shoulder, and brushed his fingers (accidentally or not, I still can't decide) across my stomach._

_Maybe just to remind me that it's been a year. That he's counting the days until he can touch me freely, and I can reciprocate._

_In return, I slammed him against a wall, broke his nose, along with some ribs. Just to show I cared, though, I asked if he was okay and if he wanted another round. He smiled and said he was okay, that he'd take me on tomorrow._

_We aren't the conventional couple._

_September 10th, x783_

_I might've taken a job on the anniversary of the date. _

_I swear I hadn't meant to. The job ran over, and he looked so forlorn before he noticed that I came back. _

_The day is like an unspoken agreement between us, I think. We have to be together - in the guild or otherwise - or else it doesn't mean anything. Because if one of us is gone for one of the six days that we celebrate, it doesn't mean as much. Because we could be gone on that sixth day and the one left behind would hurt._

_When I flung him across the room for eating my cake (he deserved it), I made sure to help him up and tell him I wouldn't miss it again. Just for him, though. No one else was allowed to know._

_It was our little secret._

_September 7th, x784 _

_Three months until S-class exams._

_I want to partner with Gray, but seeing as a) I'm already an S-class mage and that would ruin everyone elses chances, and b) I'll be fighting him at some point because I'm an obstacle, and then there's point c, which is that I don't want to ruin our secret._

_He had a cake delivered to my dorm this time. Strawberry shortcake, my favorite, with fancy icing letters saying "I'm gonna be S-class. Just watch." _

_I hope it's true. Then, maybe I can break the six-year rule and maybe kiss him full-on. _

_I'm imagining Juvia's appalled and betrayed face. As sadistic as it sounds, I'm actually enjoying it._

_September 7th, x791_

_I feel betrayed._

_Stuck inside a rock for seven years. Sure, it's better than being dead, but honestly? If we'd aged normally and gone through the years, I'd probably be married now with a little kid stuck on my hip. _

_As feminine and girly as it sounds, I kind of want that. A loving husband, a nice house, a little girl in pigtails calling me "Mommy." _

_Gray and I sparred today, and he actually kept up. It took me about an hour to catch him off guard and flip him. I'm proud of him._

_Two more years. Then we're home free and maybe I'll get that little girl._

_September 7th, x792_

_So close. One more year._

_He kissed me today. I don't know why, can't even begin to fathom what was running through his brain, but he did it and he got away unscathed. Mainly because I'm feeling so starved for attention when I know I can have it whenever I want it. But we promised. _

_I can't say that I'm not happy. I'm actually pleased that he was man enough to break what we'd decided. "Real Men break promises!" Elfman would say. _

_I've loved Gray for a long time now. Maybe it's just that I was afraid of having my heart broken. Maybe that was the problem. I couldn't let him love me, because I was afraid of being dropped. Like before, with Jellal. _

_He hasn't left me yet. I doubt he ever will._

_August 23rd, x793_

_It happened too early._

_I'm not upset about it at all, though. I've been waiting for a long time. The way he did it was amusing too. He told me that I was his princess and knelt in front of me, like a knight. It was adorable. And to top it off, I took my sword and knighted him, accepting him._

_This all happened in front of the guild. I'm more than happy that we're out in the open now. _

_It's been the best birthday._

There are no more written pages.

How could he have forgotten about September seventh? She hadn't.

He swallows hard and closes the book before any more of his tears can stain the pages. He clutches the book to his chest, reveling in the written words of Erza Scarlet.

The only tangible thing he has left of her.

"You can't live in the past," He scolds himself, standing up and dropping the book in his pocket. "You did that before, remember? And look where it got you."

Feeling guilty about Ur's death. Almost using Iced Shell, before realizing that there are people to live for, like Erza.

The past is just that: what has passed and cannot be changed.


	53. comatose

A/N: Ha. More angst. Sorry that I haven't updated in a LONG time. I've been busy and stressed.

* * *

She stares at his unconscious form angrily. His chest barely rises and falls, and she feels loathsome toward herself.

"You're an idiot," she huffs, turning away from him. She doesn't expect a response, and she doesn't receive one. "Who would be willing to be knocked into a coma for me?" Still no response.

"Erza? If you're in here, I'll need you to change his bandages." Mira pokes her head into the infirmary, a small frown on her face. "And please stop scolding him. He can't hear you."

Erza nods tersely, but really isn't listening to her friend. Mira sighs as she pulls her her head out of the room and closes the door with a click. "You're lucky, Fullbuster," she tells him, grabbing the roll of gauze from the bedside stand and hopping on the bed, "you'd be dead without me." She still keeps wanting him to reply with a _yeah, I know, _but she knows it won't happen. She might not hear his voice ever again, but she pushes that thought to the back of her brain. "But, somehow," she straddles his hips and plops herself on his lap. She then, ever so carefully, pulls his torso up off the bed and leans him forward, careful to support his back as she begins to unwrap the slightly-bloodstained bandages. "Somehow, you managed to end up like this." Her fingers linger on his skin, tracing the scars that she can feel from past battles. "It's my fault."

She sighs after tossing the used, rusty-red bandages on the floor and begins rewrapping the stitched location where a spear had been shoved through his side. "I tried to protect you, but I couldn't." _Over, over, up,_ she chants in her brain, just like Mira showed her three days ago. "I was incapable to succeeding in the duties of being a mission leader." _Over, over, up._ "You shouldn't trust me as a leader anymore." _Over, over, up. Over, over, up_. "I'm a terrible best friend." She tucks the end of the bandage under the edge of itself and lets her fingers trace the mark of the guild on his chest. "I'll be back later, Gray." She lays his torso back on the bed gently, and pulls the sheets over his body. He looks too relaxed as she pulls herself off his body, and all she can do is wish that he'd wake up soon.

* * *

I

It's been four months, and she's getting impatient. "You have to have a potion to fix him!" She demands of Porlyusica, who growls at her.

"I'm not a miracle-worker, lassie!" She wags a finger at Erza, which pisses Erza off even more. "Just because I fixed your eye doesn't mean I can save your exhibitionist boy-toy!"

"He's not my "boy-toy," dammit! And there has to be something you can do!" She feels the frustration, anger, and sheer disappointment in herself gather in pools around her eyes. "I can't sit around here while he wastes away to nothing in a bed!"

"I can't do anything for him! Now get out!" The old woman yells, pushing Erza out of her house. She doesn't resist too much, and after the door is slammed behind her, she walks back to the guild, where she sits on the outside steps and lets her silent tears fall. She hates herself, she hates what she did to him, she hates that all he is to the guild right now is a burden, and she hates that she _can't do anything to fix her own mistakes. _She can't do anything because she's not a medical person. She can't do anything except sit around and wait for him to awaken.

"Erza-san?" a young voice asks, and she feels a small smile tug on her face when she sees Wendy sit next to her. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better," she admits to the younger girl, who is fourteen to her twenty-three. "How about you?"

"I miss Gray-san," the blunette tells the redhead, leaning her head on her shoulder. "All he does is lay there. I bet he can hear us, though," she sighs. Erza nods and wraps her arm around the tiny girl's waist.

It broke Erza's heart to see the little girl cry. She referred to Wendy as her little sister, but more often than not, she almost felt a motherly attachment to the youngest dragon slayer. "I think so, too. I'm assuming you keep him up to date with the latest gossip too, huh?"

"Oh, yes! I know how much he likes hearing about everything that happens in the guild when he's away," Wendy smiles. "I like to think of Gray-san and Natsu-san like my big brothers. Gray-san is the calm and collected one who asks me how my day went and offers to make me food, even if he can't cook. And Natsu-san... He's the rowdy, wild brother who asks me if I want to spar. I love them both. And Erza-san," Wendy's smile breaks into a wide grin, "you're the oldest sister who likes to keep everyone in line with strict rules, but really has a soft spot for everyone, though the one you get along with best, and the one you love most, is Gray-san. Isn't that how the books go?"

Erza blinks at the young girl before she pulls the girl onto her lap and hugs her tightly. "Yes," she tells her. "That's how the books, and real life, go."

* * *

"Once upon a time, there was a knight and a prince," she tells him, grasping his hand and squeezing it tightly. "The prince had found the knight before she was well-known, and had challenged her to a fight to test if she was able to be part of the king's guard."

She takes a deep breath before continuing, knowing that people can hear her and are slowly trickling into the infirmary. It's been a year, and today is what decides it. The guild can't keep waiting like this. "The knight easily defeated the prince, but he stubbornly refused to accept defeat. He continuously challenged her, even though she'd already been accepted into the king's guard, and one day he found her by a riverbank, crying about something that he was ignorant of.

"He asked her, a dark blush on his face, "Why are you crying?" At first, she did not reply, for she did not find him worthy of knowing her past. After a few moments of silence, she answered him. "I'm not comfortable around other people." She told him, turning back to face the river. Angrily, knowing that what she said wasn't even remotely true, he plopped himself beside her. "Then why are you crying alone?" He exclaimed. That shocked the knight, but it earned him her trust.

"So, from that day on, wherever the knight went, the prince followed, knowing that she had potential. The prince was willing to risk his life for the knight, because he knew that she could achieve greatness as long as he had her back. The knight did not mind, because she appreciated the prince's companionship. But, silently, the knight became aware that the prince would die for her. The knight wouldn't allow it, though, for she saw the prince as more important than herself. She felt like, quite possibly, the prince had fallen in love with her. She loved the prince, too, but she could not allow her feelings to cloud her judgment when it came to the battles that she fought.

"One day, the prince and knight had gone on an important mission. It was also a dangerous mission, but they thought they could handle it. They realized too late that they should have brought back-up. As the monster lunged to attack the knight, the prince stepped in its way, saving the knight but putting himself into a deep sleep. The knight was mad at him when she brought him home, but she was much more angry at herself. She had failed in her duty as the leader of the mission, and she blamed herself for everything that had happened. She wished that she and the prince had discussed their feelings earlier, so they could both put the prince before the knight, but it hadn't happened.

"The prince didn't wake up. The knight tried to continue on with her job, protecting the citizens of the kingdom, but it was so much harder without the smiling face of the prince right beside her. The knight wished that the story had a happy ending, but not everything in life ended up with a fairy tale ending."

The whole guild hears her story. Not many people had heard the story of how the two had become so close, or how the current situation had come to be. She squeezes his hand again, and excuses herself from the room, her eyes somehow remaining dry.

She sits at the bar after pouring herself a glass of something strong and she downs the six ounces of whatever clear alcohol she gave herself, wincing at the burn in her throat but also relishing it.

She's not sure if the body that staggers out to wrap its arms around her is who she thinks it is.


	54. feeling sorry

A/N: I just found this in my phone docs and I don't remember writing this. Ever. So, um young!Grayza. And their fight isn't quote-on-quote because I'm too lazy to write down their dialogue.

* * *

When I first joined Fairy Tail, there was a part of me that knew that I wouldn't fit in. Everyone was rowdy and rambunctious, always drinking and cheering and talking amongst each other. And they way that they treated each other made my heart clench with agony and jealousy. No one had approached me the first couple days, most likely waiting for me to speak to them. But I wouldn't, because this wasn't temporary. I had to find information of how to destroy the tower and save my family.

But one day, there was mocking laughter coming from a table not far from mine, and I looked over to see what was going on. There were two girls looking a year or two older than me, two older men, and a boy whose face was tomato red. I watched as he pulled his shirt off, revealing small muscles and his ribs. He was a scrawny little thing, but had potential to be a strong mage. I looked back down at my plate when I heard his footsteps approach me.

"What the hell's your problem? You don't wear armor in a wizard's guild!" The boy yelled at me.

"What the hell's your problem?" I asked softly, but letting steel into my tone. "You don't strip in a wizard's guild. Or is this a pervert's guild?"

I got the intended reply of him flipping my table. He had a horrible temper. "I want you to fight me!"

"You sure you want to?" I challenged. Working as a slave for the past few years had helped with my strength.

"Of course! Do I look like a liar to you?" He huffed, and the action was almost... Cute. For a ten year old.

"Sometimes people lie to get what they want. Bring it, stripper," I said, standing up from my chair and beckoning him towards me.

"You're on, Scarlet!" He yelled, taking a lunge at me. But I was barely focusing on that because he had called me by the name appointed by... him. The reason I was here in the first place. How had he found out? Anger rolled in my stomach as I tackled him to the ground, pinning him under me.

"Don't cross my path ever again," I hissed, because all I wanted to do was forget about him. This boy wasn't the problem, not at all, but it was the boy who had kicked me to the curb. Actually, he threw me in the ocean.

"I'll keep challenging you until I win!" the boy replied, and with that I stalked out of the guild.

* * *

I did it every day. I sat by the river, the closest water source, and I cry over the friends I left behind, the boy who I loved, and the people who had died in the raid that had taken me away. It was my way of mourning my old life, because this was my first chance to grieve the people who I've lost since three years ago. My parents, my neighbors, the boys and girls I went to school with who were killed during their time working on the Tower.  
I would cry until sunset, then I would head home for the evening, where I'd just sleep in my dorm, on my comfortable mattress. It had been my routine since I'd arrived.

Until a certain idiot decided to show up. "Erza, I want to fight you agai-" He cut himself off and his face flushed again. "Why are you crying?" He asked, the tone in his voice gentle and concerned, but still loud.

"I'm not comfortable around people," I told him, trying to hide the blatant lie. I liked people, but I wasn't very good about being around them.

"Then why are you crying _alone_?" He asked loudly, plopping next to me on the riverbank, his legs crossed.

I blinked at him. That was... Awfully deep, for a young boy. He wasn't that much younger than me, but there seemed to be a maturity about him that was beyond his age. I couldn't form an answer for him, so we sat in silence, with his knee touching mine and gazing across the river like I was. "I... I'm here if you ever want to talk!" He said loudly (was "loud" his only way of speaking?) before running off.

I stood up, deciding that I didn't need to mourn anymore. There was no going back. I couldn't keep feeling sorry for myself. I had to move forward, because that's what everyone else on the guild had done at one point or another.


	55. be careful

A/N: I have a bruise on my knee that looks really bad and someone threw up after seeing it.

I enjoyed writing this one too much.

* * *

"You're not going!" He yells, glaring down at the exquip mage as she glares up at him.

"I am going, and you're not going to stop me!" She yells back.

And poor Levy is stuck a few feet away from the loud mages, trying to focus on her book but actually taking notes on their behaviors. They were acting different, much more hostile and frustrated with each other. She assumed that something had changed in their dynamic recently. _Gray is being overly-doting. He just grabbed her forearm as she went to storm out of the guild, and she didn't fight him off. _She was taking notes to analyze later to try and understand their changed attitudes.

"Let me go," Erza hisses calmly, continuing to glare up at him.

"No," he states boldly, tightening his grip on her.

"Gray Fullbuster, I swear that if you don't let me go right now I will kill you." Levy knows she is bluffing, though, because she doesn't exquip into other armor or even attempt to draw a sword.

"That would make things complicated for you," he says, a smirk overtaking his scowl of seriousness.

"I can get help from anyone I might need," she tells him, though Levy thinks that Gray has caught her.

"Oh, really? Wakaba and Macao are way too old, Natsu is an idiot, and every other guy has someone he's infatuated with so he wouldn't be willing to help you. It's gonna need a father figure, and I'm the best man to fill the pro-offered shoes."

Erza's eyes widen and she slaps a hand over his mouth. "Levy is right there!" She shrieks with fear. "No one even knows we're together!" Levy is screaming in excitement mentally, _there's gonna be a new baby in the guild!_ but keeps a pensive look on her face as she pretends to be deep in thought due to her archaic text.

"They'll find out eventually." Gray pulls her hand away from his face, a small smile hiding behind the woman's fingers.

"Find out what?" Levy decides that now is a good time to speak up, as she can't pretend to be absorbed in her reading for much longer. She mentally giggles as the two exchange a relieved look.

* * *

Levy takes a seat at the bar after she's sure that Erza is gone on a small, easy teaching mission and Gray is sleeping at a booth. "Mira-chan, I have the gossip of the decade," she tells the barmaid.

Mira squeals. "Do tell!" She says in an excited undertone.

"Oh no, Mira-chan, this is the best that you'll hear for a while, and it comes straight from the horse's mouth. It doesn't come without a price." Levy snickers as the woman sighs and digs around in her pockets, producing a thousand Jewel for her. "So," Levy drops her voice incredibly low so no one, not even Gajeel, cam hear her. "Have you noticed how Erza's been leaving her blouse untucked? You'll never guess why."

Mira sighs impatiently. "Levy, do I need to have someone beat it out of you? Spit it out!" She squeaks, bouncing up and down on her feet.

"Okay, okay!" Levy laughs, excitement coursing through her veins. "Erza's pregnant and I think it's Gray's."

Mira's jaw drops and her eyes widen. "No way," the barmaid tells the blunette. "How'd you find this out?"

"Erza was going to take this really dangerous mission and Gray told her she couldn't go and then she threatened to kill him, but he said something about an "it" needing a father figure, and then she said something about not telling everyone that they were together." Levy explained, a grin taking over her face. "I'm so excited! And two of the strongest mages in Fiore producing a child? How amazing is that?"

Mira was also grinning. "How long should we wait before asking them about it?"

"Let's wait until Erza gets back." Levy suggested. "There might be less destruction that way."

* * *

"So, Erza, I've noticed you've put on some weight in the past few weeks," Mira says in passing, causing Levy to giggle a bit.

"Oi, Shrimp, what's so funny?" Gajeel asks, munching on some scrap metal she'd made for him. And she ignored that the "o" in the iron had a heart as the circle. He ignored it too.

"Just watch," she says, pressing her finger to his lips.

"And? I haven't been on as many missions recently," Erza replies to the barmaid.

"Well, some things have been circling around the guild, and I was just wondering if you're using protection." Mira says innocently, but the trademark devilish smile on her face spoke otherwise.

Levy can barely choke back her guffaws as Erza spits her drink all over the table. "Excuse me? Exactly what is the rumor going around?"

"Just that you're making some guy extremely happy after hours. Are you going to confirm or deny these rumors?" It was an unspoken challenge proposed by Mira. The whole guild had gone silent and Levy watches with amusement as Gray promptly tries to run out of the guild to hide his completely red face.

Erza, however, cannot escape. Her face mirrors Gray's, and she balls her fists, the pointer fingers extended as she bounces them off each other meekly. "Um, well," she stammers, turning her face away from Mira.

"Didn't know Titania had the balls to do that," Gajeel mutters, but Levy places her hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. This was the best part!

"Erza, you're not escaping," Mira presses, the devilish smile still lurking on her face. "Or, do you not want to disclose who it is because there might be some baggage if someone were to kill him for being an idiot and abusing our dear Erza?"

Levy smirks as Erza swallows hard, her eyes wide like a deer stuck in the path of a magical vehicle. Somehow, she steels herself, her expression returning to its usual state, before she states calmly, "Isn't a woman allowed to have a child without disclosing who the father is?"

Erza stood up then and stalked out of the guild, leaving the rest of Fairy Tail in shocked silence. Levy stared, slack-jawed, at where the exquip mage had just been sitting, and Mira had fallen into a chair.

"You were right, short-stuff," Gajeel said with a chuckle, "that was the best part."


	56. distance

A/N: oops. i may or may not have been meaning to update? so sorry. I'll start a new document with my Grayza week drabbles (July 8 - 15).

* * *

She's sleeping quietly at the table she is supposed to be taking notes at. He smiles at her sleeping form, the way her face is relaxed into a small smile that he hopes is somehow related to him. Gingerly, he brushes the hair out of her face and leaves his hand behind her ear, feeling his gaze soften tremendously. He wonders if she cares about him the same amount that he cares about her. She has been playing hard to get for years, and he wonders if it'd be easier to move on. He wanted her to make the first move, though, because it would be so extremely odd if she were to be the one waiting on him. It was something he loved about her.

"I love you," he says quietly before standing up and ordering a glass of water from Mira, his face a flaming red when he realizes what he's said.

* * *

"Night, Erza," he tells her, enveloping her in a hug before walking out of the guild. She feels her body heat up at the unexpected touch, and she wonders what she did to deserve the ice mage's physical affection. Sometimes, after a fight and they're waiting for the train side-by-side, she feels her breath hitch at the heat his skin emanates. She's afraid of falling for him, because she knows she's broken inside still and sometimes feels so betrayed that she can't trust others, and she doesn't want to hurt him by not feeling able to trust him all the way.

But she really does love him. The falling has already happened. "I love you," she whispers, her eyes widening as she realizes what she said to his bare back and pressing her hand to her mouth.

* * *

Macao slams his mug on the table. "Damn, ev'rytime they're anywhere near each other, they act just like Alzack and Bisca did right before they started dating. Always avoiding each other."

"It was Gray's lucky day when Erza joined the guild," Cana adds, slamming her bottle of whiskey on the table. "If that doesn't mean eternal happiness together, then I don't know what does."

Wakaba laughs. "Someone ought to push her into him, see what happens. Maybe some sort of confessi-" He cuts his words short when he catches Erza and Gray staring angrily at each other.

"How long are you planning on avoiding me?" Gray asks testily, arms crossed over his chest. "Just because that happened doesn't mean - "

"You keep waiting for me to make a move!" She replies, one hand on her hip as she moves her other hand to accentuate her words. "I'm not the aggressor in every situation!"

"I've just been waiting until I saw it fit!" Gray answers, his arms dropping to his sides.

"You've been leading me on, which is not something you do to a girl!" Erza snaps, punching him in the gut none too easily. "I've been avoiding you so you won't hurt me!"

"Do you want to go to dinner, then?" He yells after he regains his breath.

She pulls him to her and presses her mouth to his, causing Cana and Macao to laugh. To outsiders, the exchange would be odd, with two people yelling at each other for something and having it end with a kiss, but this is Fairy Tail and everyone expects Erza to abuse her significant other and they expect Gray to take the beating from the exquip mage because he always takes her punches without any complaint. That is what the new couple has always been, and no one would dare doubt it.


	57. Chapter 57

I am not even sorry.

* * *

Erza felt the scream rather than heard it. Juvia's voice carried well. Her stomach dropped at what she heard yelled. It was funny, really, because you could always tell whether someone was screaming with hope or with anguish. And Erza realized that her best friend wasn't coming to save her like she'd hoped.

"Was that... A wail?" Jellal asked, crouching down to help Erza onto his back.

"I refuse to accept whatever happened until I see it," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck as he nestled his elbows behind her knees and stood up. "Juvia could be overreacting..." She didn't believe her own words. If the water mage had just been overreacting, there would have been the suffix 'sama' at the end of his name. No, something serious had happened to Gray, but she didn't want to accept it.

Gray was her childhood friend. He'd been there through the emotional outbursts, the beatings she'd administered, and knew more than he should about her. Amd yet he still hung around, going so far as to suggest that they make a team with Natsu and Lucy. She'd always be thankful for that, because Lucy was a wonderful friend and Erza had never had many of them.

Gray... Was irreplaceable. On so many levels. He was always willing to play a good game of chess, knew just how to make her laugh, and treated her how she wanted to be treated: as an equal, not some perfect human being. Because she was so far from what most others thought her as. Oh, she loved Gray. Possibly romantically, but she denied that part and always stuck with platonically. That way, neither would be left with unreciprocated feelings and it would never be awkward for them.

He was always willing to protect his 'sisters,' even if it meant dying in the process. How many times had he almost gotten himself killed for her, only to have her yell at him and beat him up so she wouldn't have to see him wounded and have her heart clench painfully? Far too many, and she had a feeling there wouldn't be any more.

"Are you okay?" Jellal asked, bringing her from her thoughts. "I asked where I should take you, and you didn't answer."

Erza shook her head, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to spill over. There was no way Gray could be dead. No, no way! Gray wouldn't be that stupid. She'd kill him if he was dead.

And the tears spilled. Because she didn't want her best friend to die. She didn't want that solid support who'd saved her from herself to be gone. Because what would she do when Jellal was taken away again? What would she do when Milliana was back with her guild? She had no idea where Sho and Wally were. She had no other pillar to lean on, no other strength in the darkness, because she was just that closed off. No one else had tried to get close to her, and she had never tried to let anyone else in.

"You must really care for him," Jellal suggested, hiking her back up as she slipped a bit down his back. "I haven't seen you cry this much since Rob-ji died."

"He... He saved me from myself. When I first joined." Erza replied, trying to staunch the flow of tears. She hated crying, because it ruined one's effectiveness in battle.

"So, he broke the armor around your heart? He's better than me, then." Jellal chuckled lightly. "For your sake, I hope he's okay."

"For _everyone's_ sake, I hope he's okay," she managed, her voice thick.

No one could handle losing Gray. He was too important to everyone, including herself.


End file.
